;i' 


1 


BX  6217  .H3  1833  v. 2 
Hall,  Robert,  176A-1831. 
The  works  of  the  Rev.  Robert 
Hall,  A.M. 


THE 


WORKS 


REV.  ROBERT   HALL,  A.M. 


WITH   A   BRIEF    MEMOIR    OF    HIS    LIFE, 

BY  DR.  GREGORY, 

AND   OBSERVATIONS    ON    HIS    CHARACTER   AS   A    PREACHER, 

BY  THE  REV.  JOHN   FOSTER. 

PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  SUPERINTENDENCE  OF 

OLINTHUS   GREGORY,  LL.D.   F.R.A.S. 

PROFESSOR  OF  MATHEMATICS  IN  THE  ROYAL  MILITARY  ACADEMY. 

IN    THREE    VOLUMES. 
VOL.  IL 


NEW-YORK : 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  J.  &  J.  HARPER, 

NO.  82  CLIFF-STREET, 

AND   FOR   SALE   BY   THE  PRINCIPAL  BOOKSELLERS  THROUGHOUT   THE 
UNITED    STATES. 


18  33. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


In  this  Volume,  Mr.  Hall's  Political  Tracts  are  arranged  in  the 
order  of  their  publication.  To  them  succeeds  various  Tracts,  which, 
though  not  strictly  political,  bear  an  obvious  relation  to  the  subjects  of 
politics  and  political  economy ;  employing  the  latter  term,  not  in  its 
restricted  sense,  which  regards  merely  the  wealth  of  nations,  but  in  the 
more  extended  acceptation,  which  embraces  the  momentous  topics  of 
general  security,  freedom,  comfort,  and  happiness.  Some  of  these 
pieces,  though  very  extensively  circulated  to  promote  the  purposes  for 
which  they  were  respectively  written,  were  never  issued  by  sale,  and 
it  is  now  exceedingly  difficult  to  procure  a  single  copy  of  them.  Others, 
which  were  regularly  published,  have  been  long  out  of  print. 

The  origin  of  the  Fragments  on  Village  Preaching  and  general 
Toleration  I  have  briefly  described  in  a  prefatory  note,  p.  171. 

The  Summary  of  the  arguments  on  Christian  Communion  could  not 
be  included  in  the  first  volume  without  imduly  augmenting  its  bulk ;  it 
is,  therefore,  inserted  in  this. 

The  Miscellaneous  Pieces  appeared  originally  in  Felix  Farley's 
Bristol  Journal,  and  have  not  since  been  published  with  their  author's 
permission.  They  serve,  however,  to  show  Avith  what  taste  and  ele- 
gance he  could,  in  early  life,  indulge  in  the  lighter  species  of  compo- 
sition ;  and  what  eminence  he  might  have  attained  in  that  department 
of  literature,  had  not  his  inclinations  as  well  as  his  profession  led  him 
to  devote  his  rich  endowments  to  infinitely  higher  purposes. 

Olinthus  Gregory. 


CONTENTS    OF    VOL.   II. 


TRACTS,  POLITICAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Page 

Christianity  consistent  with  a  Love  of  Freedom  ...        9 

Preface 11 

Note  by  the  Editor 12 

section  I. 

On  the  Duty  of  common  Christians  in  relation   to  Civil 
Polity 14 

SECTION    11. 

On  the  Duty  of  Ministers  in  respect  to  Civil  Polity    ...       19 

SECTION  m. 

On  the  Pretences  Mr. advances  in  favour  of  his 

Principles 26 

SECTION   IV. 

OntheTestAct 32 

An  Apology  for  the  Freedom  of  the  Press 39 

Advertisement  to  the  Third  Edition 41 

Original  Preface 43 

Advertisement  to  the  New  edition       .     .  ^ 49 

section  I. 
On  the  Right  of  Public  Discussion 51 

section  II. 
On  Associations 56 

SECTION    III. 

On  a  Reform  of  Parliament 61 

SECTION   IV. 

On  Theories  and  the  Rights  of  Man 68 


vi  CONTENTS. 


SECTION   V. 


Uii  Dissenters 76 

SECTION    VI. 

On  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Discontents 84 

Review  of  the  Apology  for  the  Freedom  of  the  Press  93 

Mr.  Hall's  Reply 98 

Note  by  the  Editor 106 

On  the  Renewal  of  the  Charter  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany    107 

An  Appeal  to  the  Public,  on  the  Subject  of  the  Frame- 
work Knitters'  Fund -121 

Advertisement 123 

A  Reply  to  the  Principal  Objections  advanced  by  Cob- 
BETT  and  Others  against  the  Framework  Knitters' 

Friendly  Relief  Society 135 

An  Address  on  the  State  of  Slavery  in  the  West  India 

Islands .     .  155 

Fragments 169 

Note  by  the  Editor 171 

Defence  of  Village  Preaching 173 

The  Impolicy  of  Intolerance 184 

On  Toleration 185 

On  the  Right  of  Worship 196 

A  Short  Statement  of  the  Reasons  for  Christian  in  op- 
position TO  Party  Communion 207 

Preface 209 


ARTICLES  FROM  THE  ECLECTIC  REVIEW. 

Foster's  Essays 233 

Custance  on  the  Constitution 249 

Zeal  without  Innovation 254 

Cisborne's  Sermons 290 

Gregory's  Letters 298 

Belsham's  Memoirs  of  Lindsey 318 

Bin  on  Popery ^     ,.,..,..     .  335 


CONTENTS.  vii 
MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

Page 

Character  of  Cleander 343 

A  Revery 346 

Essay  on  Poetry  and  Philosophy 354 

Fragment  on  Popery 359 

Character  of  the  Rev.  R.  Hall,  of  Arnsby 369 

Funeral  Oration  delivered  at  the  Interment  of  the  Rev.  H.  Crabb  372 

Sketch  of  the  Character  of  Mrs.  M.  Carryer 378 

Character  of  the  late  Rev.  T.  Robinson,  Vicar  of  St,  Mary's, 

Leicester 380 

Fragmerit. — Character  of  the  Rev.  John  Sutcliff 388 

Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Toller 390 

Preface  to  the  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Freeston  .  .  .  .  410 
Extract  from  Mr.  Hall's  rough  Notes  of  the  Funeral  Sermon  for 

Dr.  Ryland 416 

Address  circulated  at  the  Formation  of  the  Leicester  Auxiliary 

Bible  Society 418 

Speech  delivered  at  the  Second  Anniversary  of  ditto     .     .     .     .  421 

Speech  delivered  at  the  Seventh  Anniversary  of  ditto  ....  428 

Fragment. — Speech  delivered  at  a  Meeting  of  ditto      ....  436 

Address  in  Behalf  of  the  Stepney  Baptist  Academy     ....  440 

Letter  to  the  Committee  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society    .     .  444 

Preface  to  Hall's  Help  to  Zion's  Travellers 447 

Preface  to  Janeway's  Life 454 

Recommendatory  Preface  to  Beddome's  Hymns 456 

Preface  to  Chase's  "  Antinomianism  Unmasked" 458 

Letter  to  the  Rev.  W.  Bennett 465 

Extract  from  Dr.  Johnson's  Preface  to  Cowper's  Correspondence  467 

Spiritual  Condition  and  Prospects  of  the  Jews 468 

Substance  of  a  Charge  delivered  at  the  Ordination  of  the  Rev.  J. 

K.  Hall,  at  Kettering 475 

Fragment. — On  the  Art  of  Healing 484 


CHRISTLA.NITY  CONSISTENT  WITH  A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM; 

BEING 

AN     ANSWER 

TO 

A   SERMON, 
LATELY   PUBLISHED,  BY   THE   REV. . 


[Published  in  1791.] 


PREFACE. 


It  may  be  proper  just  to  remark,  that  the  animadversions  I  have 

made  on  Mr.  's  sermon  did  not  arise  from  my  conviction  of 

there  being  any  thing  even  of  plausibility  in  his  reasonings,  but  from 
an  apprehension  that  certain  accidental  and  occasional  prejudices 
might  give  some  degree  of  weight  to  one  of  the  weakest  defences  of  a 
bad  cause  that  was  ever  undertaken.  I  have  taken  up  more  time  in 
showing  that  there  is  no  proper  connexion  between  the  Unitarian  doctrine 
and  the  principles  of  liberty  than  the  subject  may  seem  to  require ; 
but  this  will  not  be  thought  superfluous  by  those  who  recollect  that 

that  idea  seems  to  be  the  great  hinge  of  Mr.  's  discourse,  and 

that  it  appears  among  the  orthodox  part  of  the  dissenters  to  have  been 
productive  already  of  unhappy  effects.  I  shall  only  add,  that  these 
remarks  would  have  appeared  much  sooner  but  for  severe  indisposition, 
and  that  I  was  induced  to  write  them  chiefly  from  a  persuasion  that 
they  might  perhaps,  in  the  present  instance,  have  some^yhat  of  additional 
weight  as  coming  from  one  who  is  not  a  Unitarian, 

Cambridge,  Sept.  17,  J791. 


NOTE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 


"  Christianity  consistent  with  a  Love  of  Freedom,"  was  written 
when  Mr.  Hall  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age  :  and  he  never  would 
consent  to  its  republication.  He  continued  to  think  the  main  principles 
correct  and  important ;  but  he  regarded  the  tone  of  animadversion  as 
severe,  sarcastic,  and  unbecoming.  Two  or  three  editions  have,  how- 
ever, been  printed  surreptitiously ;  ajid  one  of  them,  which  now  lies 
before  me,  is  so  complete  an  imitation  of  the  original  edition  of  1791 
as  usually  to  escape  detection.  It  is  printed  with  an  old-fashioned 
type  and  on  dingy-coloured  paper,  to  suit  its  assumed  age.  But  on 
comparing  it  closely  with  the  genuine  edition,  I  find  that  three  of  the 
capital  letters,  on  different  pages,  have  too  modern  and  broad  a  face ; 
and  on  holding  up  the  paper  on  which  it  is  printed  to  a  strong  light, 
I  perceive  a  water-mark  which  gives  the  date  1818  to  the  paper  of  a 
pamphlet  which  purports  to  be  printed  in  1791  !  If  the  lower  class 
of  booksellers  will  have  recourse  to  such  contemptible  forgeries  as 
this,  an  author  is  evidently  no  longer  master  of  his  intellectual  property, 
nor  can  he  when  he  pleases  withdraw  it  from  the  public  eye. 

This,  though  one  of  the  earliest  productions  laid  by  Mr.  Hall  before 
the  public,  is,  with  the  exception  already  adverted  to,  by  no  means 
calculated  to  deteriorate  his  reputation.  It  contains  some  splendid 
passages,  and  the  concluding  four  or  five  pages  exhibit  a  fine  specimen 
of  that  union  of  severe  taste,  and  lofty  genius,  and  noble  sentiment, 
which  is  evinced,  I  think,  more  frequently  in  his  compositions  than  in 
those  of  any  other  modern  author. 

I  have  no  fear  of  incurring  blame  for  having  cancelled  throughout 
the  name  of  the  individual  against  whom  Mr.  Hall's  strictures  were 
levelled.  Venerable  for  his  age,  and  esteemed  for  his  piety,  who  would 
now  voluntarily  cause  him,  or  those  who  love  him,  a  pang  ? 

Royal  Military  Academy,  June  I,  .1831. 


CHRISTIANITY 

CONSISTENT  WITH  A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM,  &c. 


This  is  a  period  distinguished  for  extraordinary  occurrences,  whether 
we  contemplate  the  world  under  its  larger  divisions,  or  in  respect  to 
those  smaller  communities  and  parties  into  which  it  is  broken  and 
divided.  We  have  lately  witnessed  with  astonishment  and  regret  the 
attempts  of  a  celebrated  orator  to  overthrow  the  principles  of  freedom, 
which  he  had  rendered  himself  illustrious  by  defending ;  as  well  as  to 
cover  with  reproach  the  characters  of  those  by  whom,  in  the  earlier 
part  of  life,  he  was  most  caressed  and  distinguished.  The  success 
of  these  efibrts  is  pretty  generally  known,  and  is  such  as  it  migJit  have 
been  expected  would  have  been  sufficient  to  deter  from  similar  at- 
tempts. But  we  now  behold  a  dissenting  minister  coming  forth  to  the 
public  under  the  character  of  a  flatterer  of  power  and  an  accuser  of 
his  brethren.  If  the  splendid  eloquence  that  adorns  every  part  of  Mr. 
Burke's  celebrated  book  cannot  shelter  the  author  from  confutation, 

and  his  system  from  contempt,  Mr.  ,  with  talents  far  inferior, 

has  but  little  to  expect  m  the  same  cause.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive 
the  motives  which  could  impel  him  to  publish  his  sermon.  From 
his  own  account  it  should  seem  he  was  anxious  to  disabuse  the  legis- 
lature, and  to  convince  them  there  are  many  among  the  dissenters  who 
highly  disapprove  the  sentiments  and  conduct  of  the  more  patriotic  part 
of  their  brethren.  How  far  he  may  be  qualified  from  his  talents  or 
connexions,  as  a  mouth,  to  declare  the  sentiments  of  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  dissenters  I  shall  not  pretend  to  decide,  but  shall  can- 
didly confess,  there  are  not  wanting  among  us  persons  who  are  ready 
upon  all  occasions  to  oppose  those  principles  on  which  the  very  exist- 
ence of  our  dissent  is  founded.  Every  party  will  have  its  apostates 
of  this  kind ;  it  is  our  consolation,  however,  that  their  numbers  are 
comparatively  small,  that  they  are  generally  considered  as  our  reproach, 
and  that  their  conduct  is  in  a  great  measure  the  effect  of  necessity,  as 
they  consist  almost  entirely  of  persons  who  can  only  make  themselves 
heard  by  confusion  and  discord.  If  our  author  wishes  to  persuade  the 
legislature  the  friends  of  arbitrary  power  are  conspicuous  for  their 
number  or  their  rank  in  the  dissenting  interest,  he  has  most  effectually 
defeated  his  own  intentions,  as  scarce  any  thing  could  give  them  a 
meaner  opinion  of  that  party,  in  both  these  respects,  than  this  publica- 


14  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

tion  of  its  champion.  The  sermon  he  has  obtruded  upon  tlie  pubHc  is 
tilled  with  paradoxes  of  so  singular  a  complexion,  and  so  feebly  sup- 
ported, that  I  find  it  difficult  to  lay  hold  of  any  thing  in  the  form  of  argu- 
ment with  sufficient  steadiness  for  the  purpose  of  discussion. 

I  shall  endeavour,  however,  with  as  much  distinctness  as  I  am  able, 
to  select  the  fundamental  principles  on  which  the  discourse  rests,  and 
shall  attempt,  as  I  proceed,  to  demonstrate  their  falsehood  and  danger. 

Our  author's  favourite  maxim  is  the  inconsistency  of  the  Christian 
profession  with  political  science,  and  the  certain  injury  its  spirit  and 
temper  must  sustain  from  every  kind  of  interference  with  the  affairs 
of  government.  Political  subjects  he  considers  as  falling  within  the 
peculiar  province  of  the  irreligious  ;  ministers  in  particular,  he  maintains, 
should  ever  observe,  amid  the  concussions  of  party,  an  entire  neutral- 
ity ;  or  if  at  any  time  they  depart  from  their  natural  line  of  conduct, 
it  should  only  be  in  defence  of  the  measures  of  government,  in  allaying 
dissensions,  and  in  convincing  the  people  they  are  incompetent  judges 
of  their  rights.  These  are  the  servile  maxims  that  run  through  the 
whole  of  this  extraordinary  discourse ;  and  that  I  may  give  a  kind  of 
method  to  the  following  observations  upon  them,  I  shall  show,  in  the 
first  place,  the  relation  Christianity  bears  to  civil  government,  and  its 
consistency  with  political  discussion,  as  conducted  either  by  ordinary 
Christians  or  ministers  ;  in  the  next  place,  I  shall  examine  some  of  the 
pretences  on  which  the  author  founds  his  principles. 


SECTION   I. 

On  the  Duty  of  common  Christians  in  Relation  to  Civil  Polity. 

The  momentous  errors  Mr. has  committed  appear  to  me  ta 

have  arisen  from  an  inattention  to  the  proper  design  of  Christianity, 
and  the  place  and  station  it  was  intended  to  occupy.  On  this  subject 
I  beg  the  reader's  attention  to  the  following  remarks : — 

1st.  Christianity  was  subsequent  to  the  existence  and  creation  of 
man.  It  is  an  institution  intended  to  improve  and  ennoble  our  nature, 
not  by  subverting  its  constitution  or  its  powers,  but  by  giving  us  a  more 
enlarged  view  of  the  designs  of  Providence,  and  opening  a  prospect  into 
eternity.  As  the  existence  of  man  is  not  to  be  dated  from  the  publica- 
tion of  Chl'istianity,  so  neither  is  that  order  of  things  that  flows  from 
his  relation  to  the  present  world  altered  or  impaired  by  that  divine 
system  of  religion.  Man  under  the  Christian  dispensation  is  not  a 
new  structure  erected  on  the  ruin  of  the  former ;  he  may  rather  be 
compared  to  an  ancient  fabric  restored,  when  it  had  fallen  into  decay, 
and  beautified  afresh  by  the  hand  of  its  original  founder.  Since 
Christianity  has  made  its  appearance  in  the  world,  he  has  continued 
the  same  kind  of  being  he  was  before,  fills  the  same  scale  in  the  order 
of  existence,  and  is  distinguished  by  the  same  propensities  and  powers. 

In  short,  Christianity  is  not  a  reorganization  of  the  principles  of  man, 
but  an  institution  for  his  improvement.     Hence  it  follows,  that  what- 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM. 


13 


ever  rights  are  founded  on  the  constitution  of  human  nature  cannot  be 
diminished  or  impaired  by  the  introduction  of  revealed  religion,  which 
occupies  itself  entirely  on  the  interests  of  a  future  world,  and  takes 
no  share  in  the  concerns  of  the  present  in  any  other  light  than  as  it  is 
a  state  of  preparation  and  trial.  Christianity  is  a  discovery  of  a 
future  life,  and  acquaints  us  with  the  means  by  which  its  happiness 
may  be  secured  ;  civil  government  is  altogether  an  affair  of  the  present 
state,  and  is  no  more  than  a  provision  of  human  skill,  designed  to 
ensure  freedom  and  tranquillity  during  our  continuance  on  this  tempo- 
rary stage  of  existence.  Between  institutions  so  different  in  their 
nature  and  their  object  it  is  plain  no  real  opposition  can  subsist ;  and 
if  ever  they  are  represented  in  this  light,  or  held  inconsistent  with  each 
other,  it  must  proceed  from  an  ignorance  of  their  respective  genius 
and  functions.  Our  relation  to  this  world  demands  the  existence  of 
civil  government ;  our  relation  to  a  future  renders  us  dependent  on  the 
aid  of  the  Christian  institution ;  so  that  in  reality  there  is  no  kind  of 
contrariety  between  them,  but  each  may  continue  without  interference 

in  its  full  operation.     Mr. ,  however,  in  support  of  his  absurd 

and  pernicious  tenets,  always  takes  care  to  place  civil  government  and 
Christianity  in  opposition,  while  he  represents  the  former  as  carrying 
in  it  somewhat  antichristian  and  profane.  Thus  he  informs  us,  that 
civiV government  is  a  stage  erected  on  which  man  acts  out  his  character^ 
and  shows  great  depravity  of  heart.  All  interference  in  political  par- 
ties he  styles  an  alliance  loith  the  world,  a  neglecting  to  maintain  cur 
separation,  and  to  stand  upon  our  own  hallowed  ground.  There  is  one 
way,  says  he,  by  which  he  means  to  insinuate  there  is  only  one,  in 
which  you  may  all  interfere  in  the  government  of  your  country,  and  that 
is  hy  prayer  to  God,  by  whom  kings  reign.  These  passages  imply 
that  the  principles  of  civil  polity  and  religion  must  be  at  perpetual 
variance,  as  without  this  supposition,  unsupported  as  it  is  in  fact,  they 
can  have  no  force  or  meaning. 

2d.  Mr.  misleads  his  reader  by  not  distinguishing  the  inno- 
cent entertainments  or  social  duties  of  our  nature  from  those  acts  of 
piety  which  fall  within  the  immediate  proxnnce  of  Christianity. 

The  employments  of  our  particular  calling,  the  social  ties  and 
endearments  of  life,  the  improvement  of  the  mind  by  liberal  inquiry, 
and  the  cultivation  of  science  and  of  art,  form,  it  is  true,  no  part  of 
the  Christian  system,  for  they  flourished  before  it  was  known ;  but  they 
are  intimately  connected  with  the  happiness  and  dignity  of  the  human 
race.  A  Christian  should  act  ever  consistent  with  his  profession,  but 
he  need  not  always  be  attending  to  the  peculiar  duties  of  it.  The 
profession  of  religion  does  not  oblige  us  to  relinquish  any  undertaking 
on  account  of  its  being  worldly,  for  we  must  then  go  out  of  the  world  ; 
it  is  sufficient  that  every  thing  in  which  we  engage  is  of  such  a  nature 
as  will  not  violate  the  principles  of  virtue,  or  occupy  so  much  of  our 
time  or  attention  as  may  interfere  with  more  sacred  and  important 
duties. 

Mr. observes,  Jesus  Christ  uniformly  waived  interesting  him- 
self in  temporal  affairs,  especially  in  the  concerns  of  the  then  existing 


16  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

government ;  and  hence  he  draws  a  precedent  to  regulate  the  conduct 
of  his  followers.  That  our  Saviour  did  not  intermeddle  with  the  policy 
of  nations  I  am  as  willing  as  our  author  to  admit ;  for  the  improve- 
ment of  this,  any  more  than  any  other  science  which  might  be  ex- 
tremely short  and  defective,  formed  no  part  of  his  mission,  and  was 
besides  rendered  quite  unnecessary,  by  that  energy  of  mind  which, 
prompted  by  curiosity,  by  our  passions  and  our  wants,  will  ever  be 
abundantly  sufficient  to  perpetuate  and  refine  every  civd  or  human 
institution.  He  never  intended  that  his  followers,  on  becoming  Chris- 
tians, should  forget  they  were  men,  or  consider  themselves  as  idle  or 
uninterested  spectators  on  the  great  theatre  of  life.  The  author's 
selection  of  proofs  is  almost  always  unhappy,  but  in  no  instance  more 
than  the  present,  when  he  attempts  to  establish  his  doctrine  of  the 
unlawfulness  of  a  Christian  interfering  in  the  administration  of  govern- 
ment on  our  Saviour's  silence  respecting  it, — a  circumstance  of  itself 
sufficient  to  support  a  quite  contrary  conclusion  ;  for  if  it  had  been  his 
intention  to  discountenance  the  study  of  political  subjects,  he  would 
have  furnished  us  without  doubt  with  some  general  regulations,  some 
stated  form  of  policy,  which  should  for  ever  preclude  the  necessity  of 
such  discussion :  or,  if  that  were  impracticable,  have  let  us  into  the 
great  secret  of  living  without  government ;  or,  lastly,  have  supplied  its 
place  by  a  theocracy  similar  to  that  of  the  Jews.  Nothing  of  this 
has  he  accomplished,  and  we  may  therefore  rest  assured  the  political 
affairs  of  nations  are  suffered  to  remain  in  their  ancient  channels,  and 
to  be  conducted  as  occasions  may  arise  by  Christians  or  by  others, 
without  distinction. 

3d.  The  principles  of  freedom  ought,  in  a  more  peculiar  manner, 
to  be  cherished  by  Christians,  because  they  alone  can  secure  that 
liberty  of  conscience  and  freedom  of  inquiry  which  is  essential  to 
the  proper  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their  profession.  A  full  tolera- 
tion of  religious  opinions,  and  the  protection  of  all  parties  in  their 
respective  modes  of  worship,  are  the  natural  operations  of  a  free  gov- 
ernment ;  and  every  thing  that  tends  to  check  or  restrain  them  mate- 
rially affects  the  interests  of  religion.  Aware  of  the  force  of  religious 
belief  over  the  mind  of  man,  of  the  generous  independence  it  inspires, 
and  of  the  eagerness  with  which  it  is  cherished  and  maintained,  it  is 
towards  this  quarter  the  arm  of  despotism  first  directs  its  attacks, 
while  through  every  period  the  imaginary  right  of  ruling  the  con- 
science has  been  the  earliest  assumed,  and  the  latest  relinquished. 
Under  this  conviction,  an  enlightened  Christian,  when  he  turns  his 
attention  to  political  occurrences,  will  rejoice  in  beholding  every  ad- 
vance towards  freedom  in  the  government  of  nations,  as  it  forms,  not 
only  a  barrier  to  the  encroachments  of  tyranny,  but  a  security  to  the 
diffusion  and  establishment  of  truth.  A  considerable  portion  of  per- 
sonal freedom  may  be  enjoyed,  it  is  true,  under  a  despotic  government, 
or,  in  other  words,  a  great  part  of  human  actions  may  be  left  uncon- 
trolled ;  but  with  this  an  enhghtened  mind  will  never  rest  satisfied, 
because  it  is  at  best  but  an  indulgence  flowing  from  motives  of  policy, 
or  the  lenity  of  the  prince,  which  may  be  at  any  lime  withdrawn  by 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  I7 

the  hand  that  bestowed  it.  Upon  the  same  principles,  religious  tole- 
ration may  have  an  accidental  and  precarious  existence,  in  states  whose 
policy  is  the  most  arbitrary ;  but,  in  such  a  situation,  it  seldom  lasts 
long,  and  can  never  rest  upon  a  secure  and  permanent  basis,  disap- 
pearing for  the  most  part  along  with  those  temporary  views  of  interest 
or  policy  on  which  it  was  founded.  The  history  of  every  age  will 
attest  the  truth  of  this  observation. 

Mr. ,  in  order  to  prepare  us  to  digest  his  principles,  tells  us, 

in  the  first  page  of  his  discourse,  that  the  gospel  dispensation  is  spir- 
itual, the  worship  it  enjoins  simple  and  easy,  and  if  liberty  of  conscience 
be  granted,  all  its  exterior  order  may  he  regarded  under  every  kind  of 
hwnan  government.  This  is  very  true,  but  it  is  saying  no  more  than 
that  the  Christian  worship  may  be  always  carried  on  if  it  is  not  inter- 
rupted, a  point,  I  presume,  no  one  will  contend  with  him.  The  ques- 
tion is,  can  every  form  of  government  furnish  a  security  for  liberty  of 
conscience ;  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  can  the  rights  of  private 
judgment  be  safe  under  a  government  whose  professed  principle  is, 
that  the  subject  has  no  rights  at  all,  but  is  a  vassal  dependent  upon  his 
superior  lord  ?  Nor  is  this  a  futile  or  chimerical  question  ;  it  is  founded 
upon  fact.  The  state  to  which  it  alludes  is  the  condition  at  present 
of  more  than  half  the  nations  of  Europe ;  and  if  there  were  no  better 
patriots  than  this  author,  it  would  soon  be  the  condition  of  them  all. 
The  blessings  which  we  estimate  highly  we  are  naturally  eager  to 
perpetuate,  and  whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  value  of  religious  free- 
dom will  not  be  content  to  suspend  it  on  the  clemency  of  a  prince, 
the  indulgence  of  ministers,  or  the  liberality  of  bishops,  if  ever  such  a 
thing  existed ;  he  will  never  think  it  secure,  till  it  has  a  constitutional 
basis ;  nor  even  then,  till  by  the  general  spread  of  its  principles  everv 
individual  becomes  its  guarantee,  and  every  arm  ready  to  be  lifted  up 
in  its  defence.  Forms  of  policy  may  change,  or  they  may  survive  the 
spirit  that  produced  them  ;  but  when  the  seeds  of  knowledge  have  been 
once  sown,  and  have  taken  root  in  the  human  mind,  they  will  advance 
with  a  steady  growth,  and  even  flourish  in  those  alarming  scenes  of 
anarchy  and  confusion  in  which  the  settled  order  and  regular  machinery 
of  government  are  wrecked  and  disappear. 

Christianity,  we  see  then,  instead  of  weakening  our  attachment  to 
the  principles  of  freedom,  or  withdrawing  them  from  our  attention, 
renders  them  doubly  dear  to  us,  by  giving  us  an  interest  in  them,  pro- 
portioned to  the  value  of  those  religious  privileges  they  secure  and  protect. 

Our  author  endeavours  to  cast  reproach  on  the  advocates  for  liberty 
by  attempting  to  discredit  their  piety,  for  which  purpose  he  assures  us, 
to  be  active  in  this  cause  is  disreputable,  and  brings  the  reality  of  our 
religion  into  just  suspicion.  "  Who  arc  the  pcrsoiis,^''  he  asks,  "  that 
embark  ?  Are  they  the  spiritual,  humhlc,  and  useful  teachers,  who 
travel  in  birth,  till  Christ  be  firmed  in  the  hearts  of  their  hearers  ?  No. 
They  are  philosophical  opposers  of  the  grand  peculiarities  of  Chris- 
tianity.^'' h  is  of  little  consequence  of  what  descriptions  of  persons 
the  friends  of  freedom  consist,  provided  their  principles  are  just,  and 
their  argimients  well  founded  ;  but  here,  as  in  other  places,  the  author 

Vol.  II.— B 


18  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

displays  an  utter  ignorance  of  facts.     Men  who  know  no  age  but  their 

own  must  draw  their  precedents  from  it ;  or,  if  Mr. had  glanced 

only  towards  the  history  of  England,  he  must  have  remembered,  that 
in  the  reigns  of  Charles  the  First  and  Second,  the  chief  friends  of  free- 
dom were  the  puritans,  of  whom  many  were  republicans,  and  the  remain- 
der zealously  attached  to  a  limited  monarchy.  It  is  to  the  distinguished 
exertions  of  this  party  we  are  in  a  great  measure  indebted  for  the  pre- 
servation of  our  free  and  happy  constitution.  In  those  distracted  and 
turbulent  times  which  preceded  the  restoration  of  Charles  the  Second, 
the  puritans,  who  to  a  devotion  the  most  fervent  united  an  eager 
attachment  to  the  doctrines  of  grace,  as  they  are  commonly  called, 
displayed  on  every  occasion  a  love  of  freedom,  pushed  almost  to  ex- 
cess ;  while  the  cavaliers,  their  opponents,  who  ridiculed  all  that  was 
serious,  and,  if  they  had  any  religion  at  all,  held  sentiments  directly 
repugnant  to  the  tenets  of  Calvin,  were  the  firm  supporters  of  arbitrary 
power.  If  the  Unitarians  then  are  at  present  distinguished  for  their 
zeal  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  it  cannot  be  imputed  to  any  alliance 
between  their  religious  and  political  opinions,  but  to  the  conduct  natu- 
ral to  a  minority,  who,  attempting  bold  innovations,  and  maintaining 
sentiments  very  different  from  those  which  are  generally  held,  are 
sensible  they  can  only  shelter  themselves  from  persecution  and 
reproach,  and  gain  an  impartial  hearing  from  the  public,  by  throwing 
down  the  barriers  of  prejudice,  and  claiming  an  unlimited  freedom  of 
thought. 

4th.  Though  Christianity  does  not  assume  any  immediate  direction 
in  the  affairs  of  government,  it  inculcates  those  duties  and  recommends 
that  spirit  which  will  ever  prompt  us  to  cherish  the  principles  of 
freedom.  It  teaches  us  to  check  every  selfish  passion,  to  consider 
ourselves  as  parts  of  a  great  community,  and  to  abound  in  all  the  fruits 
of  an  active  benevolence.  The  particular  operation  of  this  principle 
will  be  regulated  by  circumstances  as  they  arise,  but  our  obligation  to 
cultivate  it  is  clear  and  indubitable.  As  this  author  does  not  pretend 
that  the  nature  of  a  government  has  no  connexion  with  the  felicity  of 
those  who  are  the  subjects  of  it,  he  cannot  without  the  utmost  incon- 
sistency deny,  that  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  our  fellow-creatures 
in  this  respect  is  a  branch  of  the  great  duty  of  social  benevolence. 
If  we  are  bound  to  protect  a  neighbour,  or  even  an  enemy,  from 
violence,  to  give  him  raiment  when  he  is  naked,  or  food  when  he  is 
hungry,  much  more  ought  we  to  do  our  part  towards  the  preservation 
of  a  free  government ;  the  only  basis  on  which  the  enjoyment  of  these 
blessings  can  securely  rest.  He  who  breaks  the  fetters  of  slavery, 
and  delivers  a  nation  from  thraldom,  forms,  in  my  opinion,  the  noblest 
comment  on  the  great  law  of  love,  while  he  distributes  the  greatest 
blessing  which  man  can  receive  from  man ;  but  next  to  that  is  the 
merit  of  him  who,  in  times  like  the  present,  watches  over  the  edifice 
of  public  liberty,  repairs  its  foundations,  and  strengthens  its  cement, 
when  he  beholds  it  hastening  to  decay. 

It  is  not  in  the  power  of  every  one,  it  is  true,  to  benefit  his  age  or 
country  in  this  distinguished  manner,  and  accordingly  it  is  nowhere 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  J9 

expressly  commanded ;  but  where  this  ability  exists  it  is  not  dimin- 
ished by  our  embracing  Christianity,  which  consecrates  every  talent  to 
the  public  good.  On  wliomsoever  distinguished  endowments  are 
bestowed,  as  Christians  we  ought  to  rejoice  when,  instead  of  being 
wasted  in  vain  or  frivolous  pursuits,  we  behold  them  employed  on 
objects  of  the  greatest  general  concern  ;  among  which  those  principles 
of  freedom  will  ever  be  reckoned  which  determine  the  destiny  of 
nations  and  the  collective  felicity  of  the  human  race. 

5th.  Our  author  expresses  an  ardent  desire  for  the  approach  of  that 
period  when  all  men  will  be  Christians.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this 
event  will  take  place,  and  rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  it ;  but  whenever 

it  arrives  it  will  be  fatal  to  Mr.  's  favourite  principles ;  for  the 

professors  of  Christianity  must  then  become  politicians,  as  the  wicked, 
on  whom  he  at  present  very  politely  devolves  the  business  of  govern- 
ment, will  be  no  more :  or  perhaps  he  indulges  a  hope  that  even  then 
there  will  be  a  sufficient  number  of  sinners  left  to  conduct  political 
affairs,  especially  as  wars  will  then  cease,  and  social  life  be  less  fre- 
quently disturbed  by  rapine  and  injustice.  It  will  still,  however,  be  a 
great  hardship  that  a  handful  of  the  wicked  should  rule  innumerable 
multitudes  of  the  just,  and  cannot  fail,  according  to  our  present  con- 
ceptions, to  operate  as  a  kind  of  check  on  piety  and  virtue.     How 

Mr. will  settle  this  point  1  cannot  pretend  to  say,  except  he 

imagines  men  will  be  able  to  subsist  without  any  laws  or  civil  regu- 
lations, or  intends  to  revive  the  long-exploded  tradition  of  Papias, 
respecting  the  personal  reign. 

Had  Christianity  been  intended  only  for  the  benefit  of  a  few,  or  as 
the  distinction  of  a  small  fraternity,  there  might  have  been  some  pre- 
tence for  setting  its  profession  in  opposition  to  human  policy,  since  it 
might  then  have  been  conducted  without  their  interference  ;  but  a 
religion  which  is  formed  for  the  whole  world,  and  will  finally  be  em- 
braced by  all  its  inhabitants,  can  never  be  clogged  with  any  such  impedi- 
ment as  would  render  it  repugnant  to  the  social  existence  of  mankind. 


SECTION  n. 

0?i  the  Duty  of  Ministers  in  Respect  to  Civil  Polity. 

Mr. is  extremely  severe  upon  those  of  his  brethren  who, 

forsaking  the  quiet  duties  of  their  profession,  as  he  styles  them,  have 
dared  to  interfw-e  in  public  affairs.  This  he  considers  a  most  flagrant 
offence,  an  alarming  departure  from  their  proper  province  ;  and  in  the 
fulness  of  his  rage,  he  heaps  upon  them  every  epithet  which  contempt 
or  indignation  can  suggest ;  calls  them  meddling,  convivial,  political 
ministers,  devoid  of  all  seriousness  and  dignity.  It  is  rather  extraor- 
dinary this  severe  correction  should  be  administered  by  a  man  who  is  at 
that  moment  guilty  of  the  offence  he  is  chastising  ;  reproaches  political 
preachers  in  a  political  sermon  ;  ridicules  theories  of  government,  and 
at  the  same  time  advances  one  of  his  own,  a  most  wretched  one 

B  2 


20  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITn 

indeed,  but  delivered  in  a  tone  the  most  arrogant  and  decisive.  L  Is  not 
political  discussion  then,  it  seems,  that  has  ruffled'  the  gentle  serenity 
of  our  author's  temper ;  for  he  too,  we  see,  can  bend,  when  it  pleases 
him,  from  his  spiritual  elevation,  and  let  fall  his  oracular  responses  on 
the  duty  of  subjects  and  of  kings.  But  the  persons  on  whom  he 
denounces  his  anathemas  have  presumed  to  adopt  a  system  of  politics 
inconsistent  with  his  own,  and  it  is  less  his  piety  than  his  pride  that  is 
shocked  and  offended.  Instead  of  submitting  to  be  moulded  by  any 
adept  in  cringes  and  posture-master  of  servility,  they  have  dared  to 
assume  the  bold  and  natural  port  of  freemen. 

It  will  be  unnecessary  to  say  much  on  the  duty  of  ministers  in 
respect  to  political  affairs,  as  many  of  the  reflections  which  this  sub- 
ject would  suggest  have  been  already  advanced  under  a  former  head. 
A  few  considerations,  however,  present  themselves  here,  to  which  I 
shall  beg  the  reader's  attention. 

The  duties  of  the  ministerial  character,  it  will  on  all  hands  be  con- 
fessed, are  of  a  nature  the  most  sacred  and  important.  To  them 
should  be  directed  the  first  and  chief  attention  of  every  person  who 
sustains  it,  and  whatever  is  found  to  interfere  with  these  momentous 
engagements  should  be  relinquished  as  criminal  and  improper.  But 
there  is  no  profession  which  occupies  the  mind  so  fully  as  not  to 
leave  many  intervals  of  leisure,  in  which  objects  that  lie  out  of  its 
immediate  province  will  have  a  share  of  our  attention ;  and  I  see  not 
why  these  periods  of  recess  may  not  be  employed  with  as  much  dig- 
nity and  advantage  in  acquiring  an  acquaintance  with  the  principle  of 
government,  as  wasted  in  frivolous  amusements  or  an  inactive  indolence. 

Mr.  ,  with  his  usual  confidence,  lays  it  down  as  a  maxim,  that 

the  science  of  politics  cannot  be  cultivated  without  a  neglect  of  minis- 
terial duties ;  and  one  would  almost  be  tempted  to  suppose  he  had 
published  his  sermon  as  a  confirmation  of  this  remark,  as  a  more 
striking  example  of  political  ignorance  in  a  teacher  of  religion  has 
scarcely  ever  been  exhibited.  As  far,  therefore,  as  the  preacher  him- 
self is  concerned,  the  observation  will  be  admitted  in  its  full  force ; 
but  he  has  surely  no  right  to  make  his  own  weakness  the  standard  of 
another's  strength. 

Political  science,  as  far  as  it  falls  under  our  present  contemplation, 
may  be  considered  in  two  points  of  view.  It  may  either  intend  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  great  objects  for  which  governments  are  formed,  or  it 
may  intend  a  consideration  of  the  means  which  may  be  employed,  and 
the  particular  contrivances  that  may  be  fallen  upon  to  accomplish 
those  objects.  For  example,  in  vindicating  the  revolution  in  France, 
two  distinct  methods  may  be  pursued  with  equal  propriety  and  success. 
It  may  be  defended  upon  its  principles  against  the  friends  of  arbitrary 
power,  by  displaying  the  value  of  freedom,  the  equal  rights  of  mankind, 
the  folly  and  injustice  of  those  regal  or  aristocratic  pretensions  by  which 
those  rights  were  invaded  ;  accordingly,  in  this  light  it  has  been  justi- 
fied with  the  utmost  success.  Or  it  may  be  defended  upon  its  expe- 
dients, by  exhibiting  the  elements  of  government  which  it  has  composed, 
the  laws  it  has  enacted,  and  the  tendency  of  both  to  extend  and  per- 


A  LOVE  OF  TREEDOM.  31 

petuate  that  liberty  which  is  its  ultimate  object.  But  though  each  of 
these  modes  of  discussion  falls  within  the  province  of  poliiics,  it  is 
obvious  the  degree  of  inquiry,  of  knowledge,  and  of  labour  they  require 
differs  widely.  The  first  is  a  path  which  has  been  often  and  success- 
fully trod,  turns  upon  principles  which  are  common  to  all  times  and 
places,  and  which  demand  little  else  to  enforce  conviction  than  calm 
and  dispassionate  attention.  The  latter  method,  involving  a  question 
of  expediency,  not  of  right,  would  lead  into  a  vast  field  of  detail,  would 
require  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  situation  of  persons  and  of 
things,  as  well  as  long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  human  affairs. 
There  are  but  few  ministers  who  have  capacity  or  leisure  to  become 
great  practical  pohticians.  To  explore  the  intricacies  of  commercial 
science,  to  penetrate  the  refinements  of  negotiation,  to  determine  with 
certainty  and  precision  the  balance  of  power,  are  undertakings,  it 
will  be  confessed,  which  lie  very  remote  from  the  ministerial  depart- 
ment ;  but  the  principles  of  government,  as  it  is  a  contrivance  for 
securing  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  men,  may  be  acquired  with 
great  ease. 

These  principles  our  ancestors  understood  well,  and  it  would  be  no 
small  shame  if,  in  an  age  which  boasts  so  much  light  and  improvement 
as  the  present,  they  were  less  familiar  to  us.  There  is  no  class  of 
men  to  whom  this  species  of  knowledge  is  so  requisite,  on  several 
accounts,  as  dissenting  ministers.  The  jealous  policy  of  the  establish- 
ment forbids  our  youth  admission  into  the  celebrated  seats  of  learning; 
our  own  seminaries,  at  least  till  lately,  were  almost  entirely  confined 
•to  candidates  for  the  ministry ;  and  as  on  both  these  accounts,  among 
us  the  intellectual  improvement  of  our  religious  teachers  rises  superior 
to  that  of  private  Christians,  in  a  greater  degree  than  in  the  national 
church,  the  influence  of  their  opinions  is  wider  in  proportion.  Dis- 
claiming, as  they  do,  all  pretensions  to  dominion,  their  public  character, 
their  professional  leisure,  the  habhs  of  study  and  composition  which 
they  acquire,  concur  to  point  them  out  as  the  natural  guardians,  in 
some  measure,  of  our  liberties  and  rights.  Besides,  as  they  are  ap- 
pointed to  teach  the  whole  compass  of  social  duty,  the  mutual  obliga- 
tions of  rulers  and  subjects  will  of  necessity  fall  under  their  notice, 
and  they  cannot  explain  or  enforce  the  reasons  of  submission  without 
displaying  the  proper  end  of  government  and  the  expectations  we  may 
naturally  form  from  it ;  which,  when  accurately  done,  will  lead  into  the 
very  depths  of  political  science. 

There  is  another  reason,  however,  distinct  frotn  any  I  have  yet 
mentioned,  flowing  from  the  nature  of  an  established  religion,  why 
dissenting  ministers,  above  all  men,  should  be  well  skilled  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  freedom.  Wherever,  as  in  England,  religion  is  established 
by  law,  with  splendid  emoluments  and  dignities  annexed  to  its  pro- 
fession, the  clergy,  who  are  candidates  for  these  distinctions,  will  ever 
be  prone  to  exalt  the  prerogative,  not  only  in  order  to  strengthen  the 
arm  on  which  tliey  lean,  but  that  they  may  the  more  successfully 
ingratiate  themselves  in  the  favour  of  the  prince,  by  flattering  those 
ambitious  views  and  passions  which  are  too  readily  entertained  by 


82  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

persons  possessed  of  supreme  povver.  The  boasted  alliance  between 
church  and  state,  on  which  so  many  encomiums  have  been  lavished, 
seems  to  have  been  little  more  than  a  compact  between  the  priest  and 
the  magistrate  to  betray  the  liberties  of  mankind,  both  civil  and  re- 
ligious. To  this  the  clergy  on  their  part  at  least  have  continued 
steady,  shunning  inquiry,  fearful  of  change,  blind  to  the  corruptions 
of  government,  skilful  to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  eager  to 
improve  every  opportunity,  and  to  employ  all  the'ir  art  and  eloquence 
to  extend  the  prerogative  and  smooth  the  approaches  of  arbitrary 
power.  Individuals  are  illustrious  exceptions  to  this  censure  ;  it  how- 
ever applies  to  the  body,  to  none  more  than  to  those  whose  exalted 
rank  and  extensive  influence  determine  its  complexion  and  spirit,  In 
this  situation,  the  leaders  of  that  church,  in  their  fatal  attempt  to 
recommend  and  embellish  a  slavish  system  of  principles,  will,  I  trust, 
be  ever  carefully  watched  and  opposed  by  those  who  hold  a  similar 
station  among  the  dissenters ;  that  at  all  events  there  may  remain  one 
asylum  to  which  insulted  freedom  may  retire  unmolested.  These 
considerations  are  sufficient  to  justify  every  dissenting  minister  in 
well-timed   exertions   for  the  public  cause,  and  from  them  we  may 

learn  what  opinion  to  entertain  of  Mr.  's  weak  and  malignant 

invectives. 

From  the  general  strain  of  his  discourse,  it  would  be  natural  to  con- 
clude he  was  an  enemy  to  every  interference  of  ministers  on  political 
occasions  ;  but  this  is  not  the  case.  Ministers,  says  he,  may  interfere 
as  peace-makers,  and  hy  proper  methods  should  counteract  the  spirit  of 
faction  raised  by  persons  who  seem  born  to  vex  the  state.  After  having 
taught  them  to  remain  in  a  quiet  neutrality,  he  invests  them  all  at  once 
with  the  high  character  of  arbiters  between  the  contending  parties, 
without  considering  that  an  office  of  so  much  delicacy  would  demand 
a  most  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  pretensions  of  both.  Ministers, 
it  should  seem,  instead  of  declining  political  interference,  are  to  be- 
come such  adepts  in  the  science  of  government,  as  to  distinguish  with 
precision  the  complaints  of  an  oppressed  party  from  the  clamours  of 
a  faction,  to  hold  the  balance  between  the  ruler  and  the  subject  with  a 
steady  hand,  ajid  to  point  out,  on  every  occasion,  and  counteract  the 
persons  who  are  born  to  vex  the  state.  If  any  should  demand  by  what 
means  they  are  to  furnish  themselves  for  such  extraordinary  under- 
takings, he  will  learn  it  is  not  by  political  investigation  or  inquiry  this 
profound  skill  is  to  be  attained,  but  by  a  studied  inattention  and  neglect, 
of  which  this  author,  it  rfiust  be  confessed,  has  given  his  disciples  a 
most  edifying  example  in  his  first  essay.  There  is  something  mi- 
raculous in  these  endowments.  This  battle  is  not  to  the  strong,  nor 
these  riches  to  men  of  understanding.  Our  author  goes  a  step  further, 
for  when  he  is  inthe  humour  for  concessions  no  man  can  be  more  libe- 
ral. So  far  as  revolutions,  says  he,  are  parts  of  God's  plan  of  gov- 
ernment, a  Christian  is  not  to  hinder  such  changes  in  states  as  promise 
an  increase  of  happiness  to  mankind.  But  nowhere  in  the  New  TeS' 
lament  can  a  Christian  find  countenance  in  becoming  a  forward  active 
man  in  regenerating  the  civil  constitutions  of  nations.     A  Christian  is 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM. 


28 


not  to  oppose  revolutions,  as  far  as  they  are  parts  of  God's  plan  of 
government.  The  direction  which  oracles  afford  has  ever  been  com- 
plained of  for  its  obscurity  ;  and  this  of  Mr. ,  though  no  doubt  it 

is  fraught  with  the  profoundest  wisdom,  would  have  been  more  useful 
had  it  furnished  some  criterion  to  distinguish  those  transactions  which 
are  parts  of  God's  plan  of  government.  We  have  hitherto  imagined 
the  elements  of  nature  and  the  whole  agency  of  man  are  compre- 
hended within  the  system  of  Divine  Providence ;  but  as  in  this  sense 
every  thing  becomes  a  part  of  the  divine  plan,  it  cannot  be  his  mean- 
ing. Perhaps  he  means  to  confine  the  phrase  of  God's  plan  of  govern- 
ment to  that  portion  of  human  agency  which  is  consistent  with  the 
divine  will  and  promises,  as  he  says,  an  increase  of  happiness  to  man- 
kind. If  this  should  be  his  intention,  the  sentiment  is  just,  but  utterly 
subversive  of  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  introduced,  as  it  concurs  with 
the  principle  of  all  reformers  in  leaving  us  no  other  direction  in  these 
cases  than  reason  and  experience,  determined  in  their  exertions  by  a 
regard  to  the  general  happiness  of  mankind.  On  this  basis  the  wildest 
projectors  profess  to  erect  their  improvements.  On  this  principle  too 
do  the  dissenters  proceed,  when  they  call  for  a  repeal  of  the  Test  Act, 
when  they  lament  the  unequal  representation  of  parliament,  when  they 
wish  to  see  a  period  to  ministerial  corruption,  and  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  a  hierarchy  equally  servile  and  oppressive  ;  and  thus  by  one 
unlucky  concession  this  author  has  admitted  the  groundwork  of  reform 
in  its  fullest  extent,  and  has  demolished  the  whole  fabric  he  was  so 
eager  to  rear.  He  must  not  be  offended  if  principles  thus  corrupt  and 
thus  feebly  supported  shoidd  meet  with  the  contempt  they  deserve, 
but  must  seek  his  consolation  in  his  own  adage,  as  the  correction  of 
folly  is  certainly  a  part  of  God's  plan  of  government.  The  reader 
can  be  at  no  loss  to  determine  whom  the  author  intends  by  a  busy 
active  man  in  regenerating  the  civil  constitutions  of  nations.  The 
occasion  of  the  sermon  and  complexion  of  its  sentiments  concur  in 
directing  us  to  Dr.  Priestley, — a  person  whom  the  author  seems  to 
regard  with  a  more  than  odium  thcologicum,  with  a  rancour  exceeding 
the  measure  even  of  his  profession.  The  religious  tenets  of  Dr. 
Priestley  appear  to  me  erroneous  in  the  extreme  ;  but  I  should  be  soiTy 
to  suffer  any  difference  of  sentiment  to  diminish  my  sensibility  to 
virtue  or  my  admiration  of  genius.  From  him  the  poisoned  arrow 
will  fall  pointless.  His  enlightened  and  active  mind,  his  unwearied 
assiduity,  the  extent  of  his  researches,  the  light  he  has  poured  into 
almost  every  department  of  science,  will  be  the  admiration  of  that 
period  when  the  greater  part  of  those  who  have  favoured,  or  those 
who  have  opposed  him,  will  be  alike  forgotten.  Distinguished  merit 
will  ever  rise  superior  to  oppression,  and  will  draw  lustre  from  reproach. 
The  vapours  which  gather  round  the  rising  sun,  and  follow  it  in  its 
course,  seldom  fail  at  the  close  of  it  to  form  a  magnificent  theatre  for 
its  reception,  and  to  invest  with  variegated  tints,  and  with  a  softened 
effulgence,  the  luminary  which  they  cannot  hide.* 

*  Whether  or  not  the  beautiful  passage  in  the  text  was  suggested  by  a  floating  vague  recollection 
of  tlie  following  Uneii  of  Pope,  or  were  an  avowed  imitation  of  tbem,  cannot  now  be  determined.    But 


24  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

It  is  a  pity,  however,  our  author  in  reproaching  characters  so  illus- 
trious was  not  a  little  more  attentive  to  facts ;  for  unfortunately  for 
him  Dr.  Priestley  has  not  in  any  instance  displayed  that  disaffection  to 
government  with  which  he  has  been  charged  so  wantonly.  In  his 
Lectures  on  History  and  his  Essay  on  Civil  Government,  which  of  all 
his  publications  fall  most  properly  within  the  sphere  of  politics,  he 
has  delineated  the  British  constitution  with  great  accuracy,  and  has 
expressed  his  warm  admiration  of  it  as  the  best  system  of  policy  the 
sagacity  of  man  has  been  able  to  contrive.  In  his  Familiar  Letters  to 
the  Inhabitants  of  Birmingham,  a  much  later  work,  where  the  seeds 
of  that  implacable  dislike  were  scattered  which  produced  the  late 
riots,  he  has  renewed  that  declaration,  and  has  informed  us  that  he 
has  been  pleasantly  ridiculed  by  his  friends  as  being  a  unitarian  in 
religion  and  a  trinitarian  in  politics.  He  has  lamented,  indeed,  in 
common  with  every  enlightened  citizen,  the  existence  of  certain  cor- 
ruptions, which,  being  gradually  introduced  into  the  constitution,  have 
greatly  impaired  its  vigour ;  but  in  this  he  has  had  the  honour  of  being 
followed  by  the  prime  minister  himself,  who  began  his  career  by  pro- 
posing a  reform  in  parliament — merely  to  court  popularity  it  is  true,  at 
a  time  when  it  would  not  have  been  so  safe  for  him  to  insult  the  friends 
of  freedom  after  having  betrayed  their  interest,  as  he  has  since 
found  it. 

Dr.  Priestley  has,  moreover,  defended  with  great  ability  and  suc- 
cess the  principles  of  our  dissent,  exposing,  as  the  very  nature  of  the 
undertaking  demands,  the  folly  and  injustice  of  all  clerical  usurpa- 
tions ;  and  on  this  account,  if  on  no  other,  he  is  entitled  to  the  grati- 
tude of  his  brethren.  In  addition  to  this  catalogue  of  crimes,  he  has 
ventured  to  express  his  satisfaction  on  the  liberation  of  France ;  an 
event  which,  promising  a  firmer  establishment  to  liberty  than  any  re- 
corded in  the  annals  of  the  world,  is  contemplated  by  the  friends  of 
arbitrary  power  throughout  every  kingdom  of  Europe  with  the  utmost 
concern.  These  are  the  demerits  of  Dr.  Priestley,  for  which  this 
political  astrologist  and  sacred  calculator  of  nativities  pronounces  upon 
him  that  he  is  horn  to  vex  the  state.     The  best  apology  candour  can 

suggest  will  be  to  hope  Mr. has  never  read  Dr.  Priestley's 

political  works  ;  a  conjecture  somewhat  confirmed  from  his  disclaim- 
ing all  attention  to  political  theories,  and  from  the  extreme  ignorance 
he  displays  through  the  whole  of  his  discourse  on  political  topics. 
Still  it  is  to  be  wished  he  would  have  condescended  to  understand 
what  he  means  to  confute,  if  it  had  been  only  to  save  himself  the 
trouble  and  disgrace  of  this  publication. 

be  this  as  it  may,  I  think  it  will  be  readily  admitted,  that  the  rhythm  andjiarmony  of  the  passage 
in  prose  are  decidedly  superior  to  those  in  the  lines  of  the  poet : — 

"  Envy  will  merit,  as  its  shade,  pursue, 
But,  like  a  shadow,  prove  the  substance  true  : 
For  envied  wit,  like  Sol  eclips'd,  makes  known 
Th'  opposing  body's  grossness,  not  its  own. 
When  first  that  sun  too  powerful  beams  displays, 
It  draws  up  vapours  which  obscure  its  rays ; 
But  e'en  those  clouds  at  last  adorn  its  way, 
Reflect  new  glories  and  augment  the  day."— Ed. 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  25 

The  manner  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  Birmingham  riots,  and 
the  cause  to  which  he  traces  them,  are  too  remarkable  to  pass 
unnoticed. 

When  led,  says  he,  speaking  of  the  sufferers,  hij  officious  zeal,  from 
the  quiet  duties  of  their  profession  into  the  senator^s  province :  tmhal- 
lowed  boisterous  j^assiojis  in  others ;  like  their  own,  God  may  permit 
to  chastise  them.  For  my  own  part  I  was  some  time  before  I  could 
develop  this  extraordinary  passage  ;  but  I  now  find  the  darkness  in 
which  it  is  veiled  is  no  more  than  that  mystic  sublimity  which  has 
always  tinctured  the  language  of  those  who  are  appointed  to  interpret 
the  counsels  of  Heaven. 

I  would  not  have  Mr. deal  too  freely  in  these  visions,  lest  the 

fire  and  illumination  of  the  prophet  should  put  out  the  reason  of  the 
man ;  a  caution  the  more  necessary  in  the  present  instance,  as  it  glim- 
mers so  feebly  already  in  several  parts  of  his  discourse  that  its  extinc- 
tion would  not  be  at  all  extraordinary.  We  are,  no  doubt,  much 
obliged  to  him  for  letting  us  into  a  secret  we  could  never  have  learned 
any  other  way.  We  tliank  him  heartily  for  informing  us  that  the 
Birmingham  riots  were  a  judgment,  and  as  we  would  wish  to  be  grate- 
ful for  such  an  important  communication,  we  would  whisper  in  his  ear 
in  return,  that  he  should  be  particularly  careful  not  to  suffer  this  itch 
of  prophesying  to  grow  upon  him,  men  being  extremely  apt  in  this 
degenerate  age  to  mistake  a  prophet  for  a  madman,  and  to  lodge  them 
in  the  same  place  of  confinement.  The  best  use  he  could  make  of  his 
mantle  would  be  to  bequeath  it  to  the  use  of  posterity,  as  for  the  want 
of  it  I  am  afraid  they  will  be  in  danger  of  falling  into  some  very  un- 
happy mistakes.  To  their  unenlightened  eyes  it  will  appear  a  re- 
proach, that  in  the  eighteenth  century,  an  age  that  boasts  its  science 
and  improvement,  the  first  philosopher  in  Europe,  of  a  character  un- 
blemished, and  of  manners  the  most  mild  and  gentle,  should  be  torn 
from  his  family,  and  obliged  to  flee  an  outcast  and  a  fugitive  from  the 
murderous  hands  of  a  frantic  rabble ;  but  when  they  learn  that  there 
were  not  wanting  teachers  of  religion  who  secretly  triumphed  in  these 
barbarities,  they  will  pause  for  a  moment,  and  imagine  they  are  read- 
ing the  history  of  Goths  or  of  Vandals.  Erroneous  as  such  a  judg- 
ment must  appear  in  the  eyes  of  Mr. ,  nothing  but  a  ray  of 

his  supernatural  light  could  enable  us  to  form  a  juster  decision.  Dr. 
Priestley  and  his  friends  are  not  the  first  that  have  suffered  in  a  public 
cause ;  and  when  we  recollect  that  those  who  have  sustained  similar 
disasters  have  been  generally  conspicuous  for  a  superior  sanctity  of 
character,  what  but  an  acquaintance  with  the  counsels  of  Heaven  can 
enable  us  to  distinguish  between  these  two  classes  of  sufferers,  and  while 
one  are  the  favourites  of  God,  to  discern  in  the  other  the  objects  of  his 
vengeance.  When  we  contemplate  this  extraordinary  endowment,  we 
are  no  longer  surprised  at  the  superiority  he  assumes  through  the 
whole  of  his  discourse,  nor  at  that  air  of  confusion  and  disorder  which 
appears  in  it,  both  of  which  we  impute  to  his  dwelling  so  much  in  the 
insufferable  light,  and  amid  the  coruscations  and  flashes  of  the  divine 


26  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

glory ;  a  sublime  but  perilous  situation,  described  with  great  force  and 
beauty  by  Mr.  Gray: — 

"  He  passed  the  flaming  bounds  of  place  and  time  : 
The  living  throne,  the  sapphire  blaze, 
Where  angels  tremble  while  they  gaze, 
He  saw  ;  but  blasted  with  excess  of  light, 
Closed  his  eyes  in  endless  night." 


SECTION   in. 
On  the  Pretences  Mr. advances  in  Favour  of  his  Principles. 

Having  endeavoured  to  justify  the  well-timed  exertions  of  Chris- 
tians and  of  ministers  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  it  may  not  be  improper 

to  examine  a  little  more  particularly  under  what  pretences  Mr. 

presumes  to  condemn  this  conduct. 

J  St.  The  first  that  naturally  presents  hself  is  drawn  from  those 
passages  of  Scripture,  in  which  the  design  of  civil  government  is 
explained,  and  the  duty  of  submission  to  civil  authority  is  enforced. 
That  on  which  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  is  found  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  "  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to 
the  higher  powers ;  for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God :  the  powers 
which  be  are  ordained  of  God.  Whoever  therefore  resisteth  the 
power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God  ;  and  they  that  resist  shall  re- 
ceive unto  themselves  damnation.  The  ruler  is  the  minister  of  God 
to  thee  for  good.  But  if  thou  doest  that  which  is  evil,  be  afraid,  for 
he  beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain.  Wherefore  ye  must  be  subject,  not 
only  for  wrath,  but  conscience'  sake."  This  passage,  which,  from  the 
time  of  Sir  Robert  Filmer  to  the  present  day,  has  been  the  stronghold 
of  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance,  will  admit  of  an 
easy  solution,  by  attending  to  the  nature  of  Christianity,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  its  professors  during  the  period  it  was  written.  The 
extraordinary  privileges  and  dignity  conferred  by  the  gospel  on  believers, 
must  have  affected  the  minds  of  the  first  Christians,  just  emerging 
from  the  shades  of  ignorance,  and  awakened  to  new  hopes,  with  singular 
force.  Feeling  an  elevation  to  which  tliey  were  strangers  before,  and 
looking  down  upon  the  world  around  them  as  the  vassals  of  sin  and 
Satan,  they  might  be  easily  tempted  to  imagine  the  restraint  of  laws 
could  not  extend  to  persons  so  highly  privileged,  and  that  it  was  igno- 
minious in  the  free  men  of  Jesus  Christ  to  submit  to  the  yoke  of 
idolatrous  rulers.  Natural  to  their  situation  as  these  sentiments  might 
be,  none  could  be  conceived  of  more  detrimental  to  the  credit  and 
propagation  of  a  rising  religion,  or  more  likely  to  draw  down  upon  its 
professors  the  whole  weight  of  the  Roman  Empire,  with  which  they 
were  in  no  condition  to  contend.  In  this  situation,  it  was  proper  for 
the  apostle  to  remind  Christians  their  religion  did  not  interfere  with 
the  rights  of  princes,  or  diminish  their  obligation  to  attend  to  those 
salutary  regulations  which  are  established  for  the  protection  of  inno- 
cence and  the  punishment  of  the  guilty.      That  this  only  was  the 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  27 

intention  of  the  writer  may  be  inferred  from  the  considerations  he 
adduces  to  strengthen  his  advice.  He  does  not  draw  his  arguments 
for  submission  from  any  thing  peculiar  to  the  Christian  systein,  as  he 
must  have  done  had  he  intended  to  oppose  that  rehgion  to  the  natural 
rights  of  mankind,  but  from  the  utihty  and  necessity  of  civil  restraints. 
"  The  ruler  is  the  minister  of  God  to  thee  Ibr  good,"  is  the  reason  he 
urges  for  submission.  Civil  government,  as  if  he  had  said,  is  a  salutary 
institution,  appointed  to  restrain  and  punish  outrage  and  injustice,  but 
exhibiting  to  the  quiet  and  inoflensive  nothing  of  which  they  need  to 
be  afraid.  "  If  thou  doest  that  which  is  evil,  be  afraid,  for  he  beareth 
not  the  sword  in  vain."  He  is  an  avenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him 
that  doeth  evil.  Christians  were  not  to  consider  themselves  privileged 
above  their  fellow-citizens,  as  their  religion  conferred  upon  them  no 
civil  immunities,  but  left  them  subject  to  all  the  ties  and  restraints, 
whatever  they  were,  which  could  be  justly  imposed  by  the  civil  power 
on  any  other  part  of  mankind. 

The  limits  of  every  duty  must  be  determined  by  its  reasons,  and  the 
only  ones  assigned  here,  or  that  can  be  assigned  for  submission  to  civil 
authority,  are  its  tendency  to  do  good  ;  wherever,  therefore,  this  shall 
cease  to  be  the  case,  submission  becomes  absurd,  having  no  longer  any 
rational  view.  But  at  what  time  this  evil  shall  be  judged  to  have 
arrived,  or  what  remedy  it  may  be  proper  to  apply,  Christianity  does 
not  decide,  but  leaves  to  be  determined  by  an  appeal  to  natural  reason 
and  right.  By  one  of  the  strongest  misconceptions  in  the  world,  when 
we  are  taught  that  Christianity  does  not  bestow  upon  us  any  new  rights, 
it  has  been  thought  to  strip  us  of  our  old ;  which  is  just  the  same  as 
it  would  be  to  conclude,  because  it  did  not  first  furnish  us  with  hands 
or  feet,  it  obliges  us  to  cut  them  ofl'. 

Under  every  form  of  government,  that  civil  order  which  affords 
protection  to  property  and  tranquillity  to  individuals  must  be  obeyed ; 
and  I  have  no  doubt  that  before  the  revolution  in  France,  they  who  are 
now  its  warmest  admirers,  had  they  lived  there,  would  have  yielded  a 
quiet  submission  to  its  laws,  as  being  conscious  the  social  compact 
can  only  be  considered  as  dissolved  by  an  expression  of  the  general 
will.  In  the  mean  time,  they  would  have  continued  firm  in  avowing 
the  principles  of  freedom,  and  by  the  spread  of  political  knowledge 
have  endeavoured  to  train  and  prepare  the  minds  of  their  fellow-citizens 
for  accomplishing  a  change  so  desirable. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  a  particular  examination  of  the  other 

texts  adduced  by  Mr.  in  support  of  his  sentiments,  as  this  in 

Romans  is  by  much  the  most  to  his  purpose,  and  the  remarks  that  have 
been  made  upon  it  may,  with  very  little  alteration,  be  applied  to  the 
rest.  He  refers  us  to  the  second  chapter  of  the  first  Epistle  of  Peter. 
*'  Submit  yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake  ; 
Avhether  it  be  to  the  king  as  supreme,  or  unto  governors  as  unto  them 
that  are  sent  by  him,  for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers,  and  for  the 
praise  of  them  that  do  well."  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  remark,  all  that 
can  be  inferred  from  this  passage  is,  that  Christians  are  not  to  hold 
themselves  exempt  from  the  obligation  of  obedience  on  account  of  their 


28  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

religion,  but  are  to  respect  legislation  as  far  as  it  is  found  productive 
of  benefit  in  social  life. 

With  still  less  propriety  he  urges  the  first  of  Timothy,  "  where  in 
the  second  chapter  we  are  exhorted  to  supplications,  prayers,  inter- 
cessions, and  giving  of  thanks  for  all  men,  for  kings,  and  for  all  that 
are  in  authority,  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life,  in  all 
godliness  and  honesty."  I  am  unacquainted  with  any  who  refuse  a 
compliance  with  this  apostolical  admonition,  except  the  nonjurors  may 
be  reckoned  of  this  class,  whose  political  sentiments  are  of  a  piece 
with  our  author's. 

While  he  pleads  with  so  much  eagerness  for  the  duty  of  passive 
obedience,  we  are  not,  however,  to  suppose  he  wishes  to  extend  it  to 
all  mankind.  He  admits,  "  that  society,  [under  the  wisest  regulations, 
will  degenerate,  and  there  will  be  periods  when  associated  bodies  must  be 
resolved  again  into  its  first  •principles,''''  All  resistance  to  authority, 
every  revolution,  is  not  in  his  own  opinion  criminal ;  it  is  Christians 
only  who  are  never  to  have  a  share  in  these  transactions,  never  to 
assert  their  rights.  With  what  diflerent  sentiments  did  the  ^apostle . 
of  the  gentiles  contemplate  his  character,  when  disdaining  to  accept  a 
clandestine  dismission  from  an  unjust  imprisonment,  he  felt  a  glow  of 
indignant  pride  burn  upon  his  cheek,  and  exclaimed,  with  a  Roman 
energy,  "  1  was  free  born  !" 

2d.  Another  reason  which  this  author  assigns  for  a  blind  deference 
to  civil  authority  is,  that  Christianity  is  "  distinct  from,  and  independent 
of  human  legislatioti.^^  This  principle  no  Protestant  Dissenter  will 
be  inclined  to  question,  but  instead  of  lending  any  support  to  the  system 
of  passive  obedience,  it  will  overturn  it  from  its  foundation ;  for  if 
religion  be  really  distinct  from  and  independent  of  human  legislation, 
it  cannot  afford  any  standard  to  ascertain  its  limits  ;  as  the  moment  it 
is  applied  to  this  purpose  it  ceases  to  be  a  thing  distinct  and  independent. 
For  example,  it  is  not  doubted  that  a  Christian  may  lawfully  engage  in 
trade  or  commerce ;  but  if  it  be  asked  why  his  profession  does  not 
interfere  with  such  an  undertaking,  the  proper  reply  will  be,  religion  is 
a  thing  distinct  and  independent.  Should  it  be  again  inquired,  why 
a  Christian  may  become  a  trader,  yet  must  not  commit  a  theft,  we 
should  answer,  that  this  latter  action  is  not  a  thing  distinct,  or  inde- 
pendent of  religion,  but  falls  immediately  under  its  cognizance,  as  a 
violation  of  its  laws.  Thus  it  appears,  that  whatever  portion  of  human 
conduct  is  really  independent  of  religion  is  lawful  for  that  venj  reaso?i, 
and  can  then  only  become  criminal  or  improper,  when  it  is  suffered  to 
intrench  upon  more  sacred  or  important  duties.  The  truth  is,  between 
two  institutions,  such  as  civil  government  snd  religion,  which  have  a 
separate  origin  and  end,  no  opposition  can  subsist  but  in  the  brain  of  a 
distempered  enthusiast. 

The  author's  text  confutes  his  doctrine,  for  had  our  Saviour  annihi- 
lated our  rights,  lie  would  have  become  a  judge  and  drUder  over  us, 
in  the  worst  sense,  if  that  could  be  said  to  be  divided  which  is  taken 
away.  When  any  two  institutions  are  affirmed  to  be  distinct  and  in- 
dependent, it  can  only  mean  they  do  not  interfere ;  but  that  must  be  a 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  29 

genius  of  no  common  size  who  can  infer  from  religion  not  intcrferins 
with  the  riglits  of  mankind,  that  they  cease  to  be,  or  that  the  patrimony- 
over  which  our  Lord  dechned  to  exercise  any  authority  he  lias 
scattered  and  destroyed. 

.  3d.  Similar  to  the  last  I  have  considered  is  that  pretence  for  ex- 
cluding Christians  from  any  concern  in  political  affairs,  taken  from  the 

conduct  of  our  Saviour.     Mr.  tells  us,  that  Christ  uniformly 

waived  interesting  himself  in  the  concerns  of  the  then  existing  govern- 
ment ;  and  to  the  same  purpose  he  afterward  remarks,  he  always 
declined  the  functions  of  a  civil  magistrate. 

The  most  careless  reader  will  remark,  the  whole  weight  of  this 
argument  rests  upon  a  supposition  that  it  is  unlawful  for  a  Christian 
to  sustain  any  other  character  in  civil  life  than  that  in  which  our 
Saviour  literally  appeared ;  a  notion  as  extravagant  as  was  ever 
nourished  in  the  brain  of  the  wildest  fanatic.  Upon  this  principle  he 
must  have  gone  through  such  a  succession  of  offices,  and  engaged  in 
such  an  endless  variety  of  undertakings,  that  in  place  of  thirty-three 
years,  he  needed  to  have  lived  thirty-three  centuries.  On  this  ground 
the  profession  of  physic  is  unlawful  for  a  Christian,  because  our  Lord 
never  set  up  a  dispensary ;  and  that  of  law,  because  he  never  pleaded 
at  the  bar.  Next  to  the  weakness  of  advancing  such  absurdity  is  that 
of  confuting  it. 

4th.  The  author,  in  proof  of  his  political  tenets,  appeals  to  the  de- 
votional feelings  of  his  hearers.  "  I  ask  you,"  says  he,  "  who  make 
conscience  of  entering  into  your  closets,  and  shutting  your  doors,  and 
praying  to  your  Father  which  seeth  in  secret ;  M'hat  subjects  interest 
you  most  then?  Are  not  factious  passions  hushed;  the  undue  heat 
you  felt  in  political  disputation  remembered  with  sorrow  V  He  must 
be  at  a  great  loss  for  argument  who  will  have  recourse  to  such  loose 
and  flimsy  declamation.  When  engaged  in  devout  admiration  of  the 
Supreme  Being,  every  other  object  will  be  lost  in  the  comparison  :  but 
this,  though  the  noblest  employment  of  the  mind,  was  never  intended 
to  shut  out  all  other  concerns.  The  affections  which  unite  us  to  the 
world  have  a  large  demand  upon  us,  and  must  succeed  in  their  turn. 
If  every  thing  is  to  be  deemed  criminal  that  does  not  interest  tlie 
attention  in  the  very  moment  of  worship,  political  concerns  are  not  the 
only  ones  to  be  abandoned,  but  every  undertaking  of  a  temporal  nature, 
all  labour  and  ingenuity  must  cease.  Science  herself  must  shroud 
her  light.  These  are  notions  rather  to  be  laughed  at  than  confuted,  for 
their  extravagance  will  correct  itself.  Every  attempt  that  has  been 
made  to  rear  religion  on  the  ruins  of  nature,  or  to  render  it  subversive 
of  the  economy  of  life,  has  hitherto  proved  unsuccessful,  while  the 
institutions  that  have  flowed  from  it  are  now  scarcely  regarded  in  any 
other  light  than  as  humiliating  monuments  of  human  weakness  and 
folly.  The  natural  vigour  of  the  mind,  when  it  has  once  been  opened 
by  knowledge,  and  turned  towards  great  and  interesting  objects,  will 

always  overpower  the  illusions  of  fanaticism  ;  or,  could  Mr.  's 

principles  be  carried  into  efi'ect,  we  should  soon  behold  men  returning 
again  to  the  state  of  a  savage,  and  a  n;ore  than  monkish  barbarity  and 


30  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

ignorance  would  overspread  the  earth.  That  abstraction  from  the 
world  it  is  his  purpose  to  recommend  is  in  truth  as  inconsistent  with 
the  nature  of  religion  as  with  the  state  and  condition  of  man  ;  for 
Christianity  does  not  propose  to  take  us  out  of  the  world,  but  to  pre- 
serve us  from  the  pollutions  which  are  in  it. 

It  is  easy  to  brand  a  passion  for  liberty  with  the  odious  epithet  of 
faction  ;  no  two  things,  however,  can  be  more  opposite*  Faction  is  a 
combination  of  a  few  to  oppress  the  liberties  of  many  ;  the  love  of  free- 
dom is  the  impulse  of  an  enlightened  and  presiding  spirit,  ever  intent 
upon  the  welfare  of  the  community  or  body  to  which  it  belongs,  and 
ready  to  give  the  alarm  when  it  beholds  any  unlawful  conspiracy  formed, 
whether  it  be  of  rulers  or  of  subjects,  with  a  design  to  oppress  it. 
Every  tory  upholds  a  faction ;  every  whig,  as  far  as  he  is  sincere  and 
well-informed,  is  a  friend  to  the  equal  liberties  of  mankind.  Absurd 
as  the  preacher's  appeal  must  appear  on  such  an  occasion  to  the  devout 
feelings  of  his  hearers,  we  have  no  need  to  decline  it.  In  those  solemn 
moments  factious  passions  cannot  indeed  be  too  much  hushed,  but  that 
warmth  which  animates  the  patriot,  which  glowed  in  the  breast  of  a 
Sidney  or  a  Hampden,  was  never  chilled  or  diminished,  we  may  ven- 
ture to  affirm,  in  its  nearest  approaches  to  the  uncreated  splendour; 
and  if  it  mingled  with  their  devotion  at  all,  could  not  fail  to  infuse  into 
it  a  fresh  force  and  vigour  by  drawing  them  into  a  closer  assimilation 
to  that  great  Being  who  appears  under  the  character  of  the  avenger  of 
the  oppressed  and  the  friend  and  protector  of  the  human  race. 

5th.  Lastly,  the  author  endeavours  to  discredit  the  principles  of 
freedom  by  holding  them  up  as  intimately  connected  with  the  Unitarian 
heresy.  "  We  are  not  to  be  surprised,"  he  says,  "  if  men  who  vacate 
the  rule  of  faith  in  .Tesus '  Christ  should  be  defective  in  deference  and 
in  obedient  regards  to  men  who  are  raised  to  offices  of  superior  in- 
fluence for  the  purposes  of  civil  order  and  public  good."  The  persons 
he  has  in  view  are  the  Unitarians,  and  that  my  reader  may  be  in  full 
possession  of  this  most  curious  argument,  it  may  be  proper  to  inform 
him  that  a  Unitarian  is  a  person  who  believes  Jesus  Christ  had  no 
existence  till  he  appeared  on  our  earth,  while  a  irinitarian  maintains 
that  he  existed  with  the  Father  from  all  eternity.  What  possible 
connexion  can  he  discern  between  these  opinions  and  the  subject  of 
government  ? 

In  order  to  determine  whether  the  supreme  power  should  be  vested 
in  king,  lords,  and  commons  as  in  England,  in  an  assembly  of  nobles 
as  in  Venice,  or  in  a  house  of  representatives  as  in  America  or  France, 
must  we  first  decide  upon  the  person  of  Christ  ?  I  should  imagine  we 
might  as  well  apply  to  astronomy  first,  to  learn  whether  the  earth  flat- 
tens at  the  poles.  He  explains  what  he  means  by  vacating  the  rule 
of  faith  in  Christ  when  he  charges  tlie  Unitarians  with  a  partial  denial 
at  least  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scripture,  particularly  the  epistles  of 
St.  Paul.  But,  however  clear  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  may 
be,  as  no  one  pleads  for  the  inspiration  of  civil  governors,  the  deference 
which  is  due  to  the  first,  as  coming  from  God,  can  be  no  reason  for  an 
unlimited  submission  to  the  latter.     Yet  this  is  Mr. 's  argument, 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  31 

and  it  runs  thus :  Every  opposition  to  Scripture  is  criminal,  because 
it  is  inspired,  and  therefore  every  resistance  to  temporal  rulers  is  crimi- 
nal, though  they  are  not  inspired. 

The  number  of  passages  in  Paul's  epistles  which  treat  of  civil 
government  is  small,  the  principal  of  them  have  been  examined,  and 
whether  they  are  inspired  or  not  has  not  the  remotest  relation  to  the 
question  before  us.  The  inspiration  of  an  author  adds  weight  to  his 
sentiments,  but  makes  no  alteration  in  his  meaning,  and  unless  Mr. 

can  show  that  Paul  inculcates  unlimited  submission,  the  belief 

of  his  inspiration  can  yield  no  advantage  to  his  cause.  Among  those 
parties  of  Christians  who  have  maintained  the  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  its  utmost  extent,  the  number  of  such  as  have  inferred  from 
them  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  has  been  extremely  small ;  it 
is  therefore  ridiculous  to  impute  the  rejection  of  this  tenet  by  Unita- 
rians to  a  disbelief  of  plenary  inspiration.     It  behooves  Mr. to 

point  out,  if  he  is  able,  any  one  of  the  Unitarians  who  ever  imagined 
that  Paul  means  to  recommend  unlimited  obedience  ;  for  till  that  is  the 
case  it  is  plain  their  poUtical  opinions  cannot  have  arisen  from  any 
contempt  of  that  apostle's  authority. 

As  there  is  no  foundation  in  the  nature  of  things  for  imagining  any 
alliance  between  heretical  tenets  and  the  principles  of  freedom,  this 
notion  is  equally  void  of  support  from  fact  or  history.  Were  the 
socinian  sentiments,  in  particular,  productive  of  any  peculiar  impatience 
under  the  restraints  of  government,  this  effect  could  not  fail  of  having 
made  its  appearance  on  their  first  rise  in  Poland,  while  their  influence 
was  fresh  and  vigorous  ;  but  nothing  of  this  nature  occurred,  nor  was 
any  such  reproach  cast  upon  them.  That  sect  in  England  which  has 
been  always  most  conspicuous  for  the  love  of  freedom  have  for  the 
most  part  held  sentiments  at  the  greatest  remove  from  socinianism  that 
can  be  imagined.  The  seeds  of  those  political  principles  which  broke 
out  with  such  vigour  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  First,  and  have  since 
given  rise  to  the  denomination  of  whigs,  were  sown  in  the  latter  end 
of  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  by  the  hand  of  the  puritans,  among 
whom  the  unitarifin  doctrine  was  then  utterly  unknown.  The  dis- 
senters, descended  from  those  illustrious  ancestors,  and  inheriting  their 
spirit,  have  been  foremost  in  defence  of  liberty,  not  only  or  chiefly  of 
late,  since  the  spread  of  the  socinian  doctrine,  but  before  that  system 
had  gained  any  footing  among  us. 

The  knowledge  and  study  of  the  Scriptures,  far  from  favouring  the 
pretensions  of  despotism,  have  almost  ever  diminished  it,  and  been 
attended  with  a  proportional  increase  of  freedom.  The  union  of  Prot- 
estant princes  preserved  the  liberties  of  the  Germanic  body,  when  they 
were  in  danger  of  being  overwhelmed  by  the  victorious  arm  of  Charles 
the  Fifth ;  yet  a  veneration  for  the  Scriptures,  at  a  time  when  they 
had  almost  fallen  into  oblivion,  and  an  appeal  to  their  decisions  in  all 
points,  was  the  grand  characteristic  of  the  new  religion.  If  we  look 
into  Turkey  we  shall  find  the  least  of  that  impatience  under  restraints 

which  Mr.  laments  of  any  place  in  the  world,  though  Paul  aiid 

his  epistles  are  not  much  studied  there. 


32  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

There  are  not  wanting  reasons  which  at  first  view  might  induce  ua 
to  conclude  unitarianism  was  less  favourable  to  the  love  of  freedom 
than  almost  any  other  system  of  religious  belief.  If  any  party  of 
Christians  were  ever  free  from  the  least  tincture  of  enthusiasm,  it  is 
the  Unitarian  :  yet  that  passion  has  by  every  philosopher  been  judged 
friendly  to  liberty;  and  to  its  influence,  though  perhaps  improperly, 
some  of  its  most  distinguished  exertions  have  been  ascribed.  Hume 
and  Bolingbroke,  who  were  atheists,  leaned  towards  arbitrary  power. 
Owen,  Howe,  Milton,  Baxter,  some  of  the  most  devout  and  venerable 
characters  that  ever  appeared,  were  warmly  attached  to  liberty,  and 
held  sentiments  on  the  subject  of  government  as  free  and  unfettered  as 
Dr.  Priestley.  Thus  every  pretence  for  confounding  the  attachment 
to  freedom  with  the  sentiments  of  a  religious  party  is  most  abundantly 
confuted  both  from  reason  and  from  fact.  The  zeal  Unitarians  have 
displayed  in  defence  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  is  the  spirit  natural  to 
a  minority  who  are  well  aware  they  are  viewed  by  the  ecclesiastical 
powers  with  an  imparalleled  malignity  and  rancour.  Let  the  dis- 
senters at  large  remember  they  too  are  a  minority,  a  great  minority, 
and  that  they  must  look  for  their  security  from  the  same  quarter,  not 
from  the  compliments  of  bishops  or  presents  from  maids  of  honour.* 

To  abandon  principles  which  the  best  and  most  enlightened  men 
have  in  all  ages  held  sacred,  which  the  dissenters  in  particular  have 
rendered  themselves  illustrious  by  defending,  which  have  been  sealed 
and  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  our  ancestors,  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  the  Unitarians  chance  to  maintain  them,  would  be  a  weakness 
of  which  a  child  might  be  ashamed  !  Whoever  may  think  fit  to  take 
up  the  gauntlet  in  the  socinian  controversy  will  have  my  warmest  good 
wishes ;  but  let  us  not  employ  those  arms  against  each  other  which 
were  given  us  for  our  common  defence. 


SECTION  IV. 

On  the   Test  Act. 

Amid  all  the  wild  eccentricities  Avhich,  abounding  in  every  part  of 
this  extraordinary  publication,  naturally  diminish  our  wonder  at  any 
thing  such  a  writer  may  advance,  I  confess  I  am  surprised  at  his 
declaring  his  wish  for  the  continuance  of  the  Test  Act.  This  law, 
enacted  in  the  latter  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second  to  secure 
the  nation  from  popery  when  it  stood  upon  the  brink  of  that  precipice, 
is  continued,  now  that  the  danger  no  longer  exists  which  first  occasioned 
it,  for  the  express  purpose  of  preserving  the  church  from  the  inroads 
of  dissenters.  That  church,  it  must  be  remembered,  existed  for  ages 
before  it  received  any  such  protection  ;  yet  it  is  now  the  vogue  to  mag- 

*  Some  of  my  readers  perhaps  need  to  be  informed  that  I  here  allude  to  Mr.  Martin,  who,  for 

similar  services  to  those  Mr. is  now  performing,  has  been  considerably  caressed  by  certain 

bishops,  who  have  condescended  to  notice  and  to  visit  him.    1  think  we  do  not  read  that  Judas  bad 
any  acquaintance  with  the  high-priests  till  he  came  to  transact  business  with  tbem. 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  33 

nify  its  importance  to  that  degree  that  one  would  imagine  it  was  its 
sole  prop,  whose  removal  would  draw  the  whole  fabric  after  it,  or  at 
least  make  it  totter  to  its  base.  Whether  these  apprehensions  were 
really  entertained  by  the  clergy  who  gave  the  signal  for  the  commence- 
ment of  hostilities  on  a  late  occasion,  or  whether  they  were  only  im- 
pelled by  that  illiberal  tincture  and  fixed  antipathy  to  all  who  difler 
from  them  which  hath  ever  marked  their  character,  may  be  doubted ; 
but  to  behold  a  dissenting  minister  joining  with  tliem  in  an  unnatural 
warfare  against  his  brethren  is  a  phenomenon  so  curious  that  it  prompts 
us  to  inquire  into  its  cause.  Let  us  hear  his  reasons.  He  and  many 
others  were  convinced,  he  tells  us,  "  that  some  of  the  persons  who 
applied  for  the  repeal  were  influenced  by  enmity  against  the  doctrinal 
articles  of  the  established  church,  and  they  could  not  sacrifice  their 
pious  regard  to  truth,  though  in  a  church  they  had  separated  from,  to 
the  policy  of  men  who  with  respect  to  God  our  Saviour  only  consult 
how  they  may  cast  him  down  from  his  excellency."  When  we  hear 
the  clergy  exclaim  that  their  church  is  in  danger,  we  pretty  well  under- 
stand what  they  mean ;  they  speak  broad,  as  Mr.  Burke  says,  and 
intend  no  more  than  that  its  emoluments  are  endangered ;  but  when  a 
serious  dissenter  expresses  his  pious  regard  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
church,  it  is  the  truth  of  those  articles  he  must  be  supposed  to  have  in 
view.  Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  what  advantage  the  Test  Act  is 
capable  of  yielding  ihein.  All  those  who  qualify  for  civil  offices  by  a 
submission  to  this  law  consist  of  two  classes  of  people  :  they  are  either 
persons  who  are  attached  to  the  articles  of  the  church,  from  whom 
therefore  no  danger  could  accrue,  or  they  are  persons  who  have  signi- 
fied their  assent  to  doctrines  which  they  inwardly  disapprove,  and  who 
have  qualified  themselves  for  trust  by  a  solemn  act  of  religious  decep- 
tion. It  is  this  latter  class  alone,  it  should  be  remembered,  whom  the 
Test  Act  can  at  all  influence,  and  thus  the  only  security  this  celebrated 
law  can  afford  the  arti(;les  of  the  church  is  founded  in  a  flagrant  viola- 
tion of  truth  in  the  persons  who  become  their  guarantees.  Every 
attempt  that  has  been  made  to  uphold  religion  by  the  civil  arm  has 
reflected  disgrace  upon  its  authors  ;  but  of  all  that  are  recorded  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  perhaps  this  is  the  most  absurd  in  its  principle 
and  the  least  efiectual  in  its  operation.  For  the  truth  of  sacred  mys- 
teries in  religion,  it  appeals  to  the  corruptest  principles  of  the  human 
heart,  and  to  those  only ;  for  no  one  can  be  tempted  by  the  Test  Act 
to  profess  an  attachment  to  the  doctrines  of  the  church  till  he  has  been 
already  allured  by  the  dignity  or  emolument  of  a  civil  office.  By  com- 
pelling all  who  exercise  any  function  in  the  state,  from  the  person  who 
aspires  to  its  highest  distinctions  to  those  who  fill  the  meanest  offices 
in  it,  to  profess  that  concurrence  in  religious  opinions  which  is  known 
never  to  exist,  it  is  adapted  beyond  any  other  human  invention  to 
spread  among  all  orders  of  men  a  contempt  for  sacred  institutions,  to 
enthrone  hypocrisy,  and  reduce  deception  to  a  system  !  The  truth  of 
any  set  of  opinions  can  only  be  perceived  by  evidence ;  but  what  evi- 
dence can  any  one  derive  from  the  mere  mechanical  action  of  receiving 
bread  and  wine  at  the  hands  of  a  parish  priest  ?  He  who  believes  them 
Vol.  n.— C 


\ 


34  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

already  needs  not  to  be  initiated  by  any  such  ceremony  ;  and  by  what 
magic  touch  those  simple  elements  are  to  convert  the  unbeliever,  our 
author,  who  is  master  of  so  many  secrets,  has  not  condescended  to  ex- 
plain. He  will  not  pretend  to  impute  the  first  spread  of  these  doctrines 
in  the  infancy  of  the  Christian  religion  or  their  revival  at  the  Reforma- 
tion to  any  such  means,  since  he  imagines  he  can  trace  them  in  the 
New  Testament.  It  is  strange  if  that  evidence  which  was  powerful 
enough  to  introduce  them  where  they  were  unknown  is  not  sufficient 
to  uphold  them  where  they  are  already  professed  and  believed.  At 
least,  the  Test  Act,  it  must  be  confessed,  has  yielded  them  no  advan- 
tage, for  they  have  been  controverted  with  more  acrimony  and  admitted 
by  a  smaller  number  of  persons  since  that  law  was  enacted,  than  in 
any  period  preceding. 

Were  the  removal  of  this  test  to  overthrow  the  establishment  itself, 
a  consequence  at  the  same  time  in  the  highest  degree  improbable,  the 
articles  of  the  church,  if  they  are  true,  would  remain  unendangered, 
their  evidence  would  continue  unimpaired,  an  appeal  to  the  inspired 
writings  from  which  they  profess  to  be  derived  would  be  open,  the 
liberty  of  discussion  would  be  admitted  in  as  great  an  extent  as  at 
present;  this  difference  only  would  occur,  that  an  attachment  to  them 
would  no  longer  be  suspected  of  flowing  from  corrupt  and  sinister 
motives.  They  would  cease  to  be  with  the  clergy  the  ladder  of  pro- 
motion, the  cant  of  the  pulpit,  the  ridicule  of  the  schools.  The  futility 
of  this  or  any  other  law,  as  a  security  to  religious  doctrines,  may  be 
discerned  from  this  single  reflection,  that  in  the  national  church  its 
own  articles  have,  for  a  length  of  time,  been  either  treated  with  con- 
tempt, or  maintained  with  little  sincerity  and  no  zeal ;  while  among 
the  dissenters,  where  they  have  had  no  such  aids,  tliey  have  found  a 
congenial  soil,  and  continue  to  flourish  with  vigour. 

On  the  political  complexion  of  this  test,  as  it  does  not  fall  so 
properly  within  my  present  view,  I  shall  content  myself  with  remark- 
ing, that  harmless  as  it  may  appear  at  first  sight,  it  carries  in  it  the 
seeds  of  all  the  persecutions  and  calamities  which  have  ever  been  sus- 
tained on  a  religious  account.  It  proscribes,  not  an  individual  who 
has  been  convicted  of  a  crime,  but  a  whole  party,  as  unfit  to  be  trusted 
by  the  community  to  which  they  belong;  and  if  this  stigma  can  be 
justly  fixed  on  any  set  of  men,  it  ought  not  to  stop  liere,  or  anywhere, 
short  of  the  actual  excision  of  those  who  are  thus  considered  as  rotten 
and  incurable  members  of  the  political  body.  In  annexing  to  religious 
speculation  the  idea  of  political  default,  the  principle  of  this  law  would 
justify  every  excess  of  severity  and  rigour.  If  we  are  the  persons  it 
supposes,  its  indulgence  is  weak  and  contemptible ;  if  we  are  of  a 
different  description,  the  nature  of  its  pretensions  is  so  extraordinary 

as  to  occasion  serious  alarm,  and  call  aloud  for  its  repeal.    Mr.  , 

indeed,  calls  this  and  similar  laws  a  restraint  very  prudently  imposed 
upon  those  who  dissent  from  the  established  religion.* 

This  restraint,  however,  is  no  less  than  a  political  annihilation,  de- 
barring them,  though  their  talents  were  ever  so  splendid,  from  mingling 

♦  rase  5. 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  35 

in  the  counsels,  or  possessing  any  share  in  the  administration  of  their 
country.  With  that  natural  reUsh  for  absurdity  which  characterizes 
this  author,  he  imagines  they  have  justly  incurred  this  evil  for  dissent- 
ing from  an  erroneous  religion. 

He  tells  us  in  the  course  of  his  sermon,*  that  tlie  grand  "  principle 
of  separation  from  the  church  lies  in  the  unworldly  nature  of  our 
Saviour's  kingdom."  This  reason  for  separation  implies,  that  any 
attempt  to  blend  worldly  interests  or  pohcy  with  the  constitution  of  a 
church  is  improper ;  but  how  could  this  be  done  more  effectually  than 
by  rendering  the  profession  of  its  articles  a  preliminary  step  to  every 
kind  of  civil  pre-eminence  ?  Yet  this  abuse,  which  in  his  own  estima- 
tion is  so  enormous  as  to  form  the  great  basis  of  separation,  he  wishes 
to  perpetuate ;  and,  all  things  considered,  hopes  "  that  which  is  at 
rest  will  not  be  disturbed."  In  another  part  of  his  discourse,!  he 
asks  what  temporalities  has  the  church  of  Christ  to  expect  ?  It  is  the 
mother  of  harlots  which  says,  "  I  sit  a  queen,  and  shall  see  no  sor- 
row." Would  any  one  imagine  this  was  the  language  of  a  man  who, 
in  pleading  for  a  Test  Act,  has  rested  the  support  of  his  creed  on  those 
very  temporalities  he  affects  so  much  to  disdain,  and  has  committed 
his  religion  to  the  arms  of  that  mother  of  harlots  to  be  reared  and 
nourished  !  When  speaking  of  the  Test  Act  in  the  seventh  page  of 
his  discourse,  he  thus  expresses  himself:  "  Surely  the  cross  of  Christ 
ought  not  to  be  insulted  by  persons  eager  to  press  into  the  temple  of 
Mammon."  Who  could  treat  it  with  more  poignant  severity  than  is 
couched  in  this  declaration?  yet  this  is  the  language  of  a  person  who 
desires  its  continuance.  In  truth,  his  representations  on  this  subject 
are  pregnant  with  such  contradictions,  and  rise  above  each  other  in  so 
singular  a  gradation  of  absurdity,  as  will  not  be  easily  conceived,  and 
perhaps  hath  scarce  ever  been  equalled.  At  the  very  outset  of  his 
sermon  he  declares,  "  Whenever  the  gospel  is  secularized  it  is  debased 
and  misrepresented,  and  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  foreign  infu- 
sions is  the  efficacy  of  this  saving  health  diminished."  But  human 
ingenuity  would  be  at  a  loss  to  contrive  a  method  of  secularizing  the 
gospel  more  completely  than  by  rendering  it  the  common  passport  of 
all  who  aspire  to  civil  distinctions.  I  am  really  weary  of  exposing 
the  wild  and  extravagant  incoherence  of  such  a  reasoner.  From  a 
man  who,  professing  to  be  the  apologist  of  his  party,  betrays  its  in- 
terests, and  exhibits  its  most  illustrious  members  to  reproach ;  who, 
himself  a  dissenter,  applauds  the  penalties  which  the  hierarchy  has 
inflicted  a  '■'■prudent  restraint;''''  who  with  the  utmost  poignance  cen- 
sures a  law  which  he  solemnly  invokes  the  legislature  to  perpetuate ; 
and  proposes  to  secure  the  truths  of  religion  by  the  "  profanation  of  its 
sacraments,"!  by  "  debasing  the  gospel,"  and  "  insulting  the  cross  ;" 
anything  may  be  expected  but  consistence  and  decency.  When  such 
an  author  assures  us  he  was  not  impelled  by  vanity  to  publish,^  we 
may  easily  give  him  credit ;  but  he  should  remember,  though  it  may 
be  a  virtue  to  subdue  vanity,  it  is  base  to  extinguish  shame.  The 
tear  which  he  tells  us  started  from  the  eyes  of  his  audience,  we  will 

*  Pago  35.  t  Page  26.  ?  Page  8.  ^  Page  6. 

C2 


36  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH 

hope,  for  their  honour,  was  an  effusion  of  regret  natural  to  his  friends 
on  hearing  him  dehver  sentiments  wliich  they  considered  as  a  disgrace 
to  himself,  and  a  calumny  on  his  brethren.  His  affecting  to  pour  con- 
tempt upon  Dr.  Price,  whose  talents  and  character  were  revered  by  all 
parties,  and  to  hold  him  up  as  the  corrupter  of  the  disseuters,  will  not 
fail  to  awaken  the  indignation  of  every  generous  mind.  Whether  they 
were  greater  friends  to  their  country  whose  pride  and  oppression  scat- 
tered the  flames  of  discord  across  the  Atlantic,  poured  desolation  into 
the  colonies,  dismembered  the  empire,  and  involved  us  in  millions  of 
debt,  or  the  man  who  with  a  warning  voice  endeavoured  to  avert  those 
calamities,  posterity  will  decide. 

He  gives  us  a  pompous  enumeration*  of  the  piety,  learning,  and 
talents  of  a  large  body  of  his  brethren  who  concur  with  him  in  a  dis- 
approbation of  the  theological  and  political  tenets  of  the  Unitarians. 
The  weakness  of  mingling  them  together  has  been  shown  already; 
but  if  these  great  and  eminent  men,  whom  the  world  never  heard  of 
before,  possess  that  zeal  for  their  religion  they  pretend,  let  them  meet 
their  opponents  on  the  open  field  of  controversy,  where  they  may  dis- 
play their  talents  and  prowess  to  somewhat  more  advantage  than  in 
skulking  behind  a  consecrated  altar. 

There  are  many  particulars  in  the  address  and  sermon  of  an  extra- 
ordinary complexion  which  I  have  not  noticed  at  all,  as  it  was  not  my 
intention  to  tbllow  the  author  step  by  step,  but  rather  to  collect  his  scat- 
tered representations  into  some  leading  points  of  view.  For  the  same 
reason  I  make  no  remarks  on  his  barbarous  imagery  or  his  style,  every- 
where incoherent  and  incorrect,  sometimes  indecent,  which  cannot  fail 
of  disgusting  every  reader  of  taste.  In  a  rude  daubing  peculiar  to 
himself,  where  in  ridicule  of  Dr.  Priestley  he  has  grouped  together  a 
foreigner,  a  ship,  and  cargo  of  drugs,  he  has  unfortunately  sketched 
his  own  likeness,  except  in  the  circumstance  of  the  ship,  with  tolerable 
accuracy;  for,  without  the  apology  of  having  been  shipped  into  Eng- 
land, he  is  certainly  a  foreigner  in  his  native  tongue,  and  his  publica- 
tion will  be  allowed  to  be  a  drug. 

Had  he  known  to  apply  the  remark  witli  wliich  his  address  com- 
mences, on  the  utility  of  accommodating  instruction  to  the  exigence  of 
times,  he  would  have  been  aware  that  this  is  not  a  season  for  drawing 
off  the  eyes  of  mankind  from  political  objects.  They  were  in  fact 
never  turned  towards  them  with  equal  ardour,  and  we  may  venture  to 
afhrm  they  will  long  continue  to  take  that  direction.  An  attention  to 
the  political  aspect  of  the  world  is  not  now  the  fruit  of  an  idle  curiosity, 
or  the  amusement  of  a  dissipated  and  frivolous  mind,  but  is  awakened 
and  kept  alive  by  occurrences  as  various  as  they  are  extraordinary. 
There  are  times  when  the  moral  world  seems  to  stand  still;  there  are 
others  when  it  seems  impelled  towards  its  goal  with  an  accelerated 
force.  The  present  is  a  period  more  interesting  perhaps  than  any 
which  has  been  known  in  the  whole  flight  of  time.  The  scenes  of 
Providence  thicken  upon  us  so  fast,  and  are  shifted  with  so  strange 
a  rapidity,  as  if  the  great  drama  of  the  world  were  drawing  to  a 

*  Fage  6. 


A  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM.  37 

close.*  Events  have  taken  place  of  late,  and  revolutions  have  been  ef- 
fected, which,  had  they  been  foretold  a  very  few  years  ago,  would  have 
been  viewed  as  visionary  and  extravagant ;  and  their  influence  is  yet  far 
from  being  spent.  Europe  never  presented  such  a  spectacle  before, 
and  it  is  worthy  of  being  contemplated  with  the  profoundest  attention 
by  all  its  inhabitants.  The  empire  of  darkness  and  of  despotism  has 
been  smitten  with  a  stroke  which  has  sounded  through  the  universe. 
When  we  see  whole  kingdoms,  after  reposing  for  centuries  on  the  lap 
of  their  rulers,  start  from  their  slumber,  the  diguity  of  man  rising  up 
from  depression,  and  tyrants  trembling  on  their  thrones,  who  can 
remain  entirely  indiflerent,  or  fail  to  turn  his  eye  towards  a  theatre  so 
august  and  extraordinary !  These  are  a  kind  of  throes  and  struggles 
of  nature  to  which  it  would  be  a  sullenness  to  refuse  our  sympathy. 
Old  foundations  are  breaking  up  ;  new  edifices  are  rearing.  Institu- 
tions which  have  been  long  held  in  veneration  as  the  most  sublime 
refinements  of  human  wisdom  and  policy,  which  age  hath  cemented 
and  confirmed,  which  power  hath  supported,  which  eloquence  hath 
conspired  to  embellish  and  opulence  to  enrich,  are  falling  fast  into 
decay.  New  prospects  are  opening  on  every  side,  of  such  amazing 
variety  and  extent  as  to  stretch  farther  than  the  eye  of  the  most 
enlightened  observer  can  reach. 

Some  beneficial  effects  appear  to  have  taken  place  already,  sufficient 
to  nourish  our  most  sanguine  hope  of  benefits  much  more  extensive. 
The  mischief  and  folly  of  wars  begin  to  be  understood,  and  that  mild 
and  liberal  system  of  policy  adopted  which  has  ever  indeed  been  the 
object  of  prayer  to  the  humane  and  the  devout,  but  has  hitherto  remained 
utterly  unknown  in  the  cabinets  of  princes.  As  the  mind  naturally 
yields  to  the  impression  of  objects  which  it  contemplates  often,  we 
need  not  wonder  if,  amid  events  so  extraordinary,  the  human  char- 
acter itself  should  appear  to  be  altering  and  improving  apace.  That 
fond  attachment  to  ancient  institutions,  and  blind  submission  to  opinions 
already  received,  which  has  ever  checked  the  growth  of  improvement, 
and  drawn  on  the  greatest  benefactors  of  mankind  danger  or  neglect, 
is  giving  way  to  a  spirit  of  bold  and  fearless  investigation,  Man 
seems  to  be  becoming  more  erect  and  independent.  He  leans  more 
on  himself,  less  on  his  fellow-creatures.  He  begins  to  feel  a  con- 
sciousness in  a  higher  degree  of  personal  dignity,  and  is  less  enamoured 
of  artificial  distinctions.  There  is  some  hope  of  our  beholding  that 
simplicity  and  energy  of  character  which  marks  his  natural  state, 
blended  with  the  humanity,  the  elegance,  and  improvement  of  polished 
society. 

The  events  which  have  already  taken  place,  and  the  further  changes 
they  forbode,  will  open  to  the  contemplative  of  every  character  innu- 
merable sources  of  reflection.  To  the  philosopher  they  present  many 
new  and  extraordinary  facts,  where  his  penetration  will  find  ample 
scope  in  attempting  to  discover  their  cause,  and  to  predict  their  effects. 

*  This  glowing  picture,  as  accurately  descriptive  of  recent  events  as  of  those  It  was  Intended  to 
portray,  might  tempt  us  almost  to  fancy  tliat,  afier  the  revolution  of  a  cycle  of  forty  years,  time  had 
brought  UH  back  to  the  same  state  of  thiiigu.— Eo. 


38  CHRISTIANITY  CONSISTENT  WITH  FREEDOM. 

He  will  have  an  opportunity  of  viewing  mankind  in  an  interesting 
situation,  and  of  tracing  the  progress  of  opinion  through  channels  it 
has  rarely  flowed  in  before.  The  politician  will  feel  his  attention 
powerfully  awakened,  on  seeing  new  maxims  of  policy  introduced, 
new  institutions  established,  and  such  a  total  alteration  in  the  ideas  of 
a  great  part  of  the  world,  as  will  oblige  him  to  study  the  art  of  gov- 
ernment, as  it  were,  afresh.  The  devout  mind  will  behold  in  these 
momentous  changes  the  finger  of  God,  and  discerning  in  them  the 
dawn  of  that  glorious  period  in  which  wars  will  cease  and  antichris- 
tian  tyranny  shall  fall,  will  adore  that  unerring  wisdom  whose  secret 
operation  never  fails  to  conduct  all  human  affairs  to  their  proper  issue, 
and  impels  the  great  actors  on  that  troubled  theatre  to  fulfil,  when 
they  least  intend  it,  the  counsels  of  Heaven,  and  the  predictions  of  its 
prophets. 


AN  APOLOGY 

FOR    THE 

FREEDOM    OF    THE    PRESS, 

AND    FOR 

GENERAL   LIBERTY: 

TO  WHICH  ARE  PREFIXED, 

REMARKS  ON  BISHOP  HORSLEY'S  SERMON, 

Preached  on  the  30th  Jamiary,  1793. 


[Published  in  1793.] 


ADVERTISEMENT  TO  THE  THIRD  EDITION. 


Since  this  pamphlet  was  first  published,  the  principles  it  aims  to 
support  have  received  confirmation  from  such  a  train  of  disastrous 
events,  that  it  might  have  been  hoped  we  should  have  learned  those 
lessons  from  misfortunes  which  reason  had  failed  to  impress.  Unin- 
structed  by  our  calamities,  we  still  persist  in  an  impious  attack  on  the 
liberties  of  France,  and  are  eager  to  take  our  part  m  the  great  drama 
of  crimes  which  is  acting  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  Meantime  the 
violence  and  injustice  of  the  internal  administration  keeps  pace  with 
our  iniquities  abroad.  Liberty  and  truth  are  silenced.  An  unrelenting 
system  of  prosecution  prevails.  The  cruel  and  humiliating  sentence 
passed  upon  Mr.  Muir  and  Mr.  Palmer,  men  of  unblemished  morals 
and  of  the  purest  patriotism,  the  outrages  committed  on  Dr.  Priestley, 
and  his  intended  removal  to  America,  are  events  which  will  mark  the 
latter  end  of  tlie  eighteenth  century  with  indelible  reproach.  But  what 
has  liberty  to  expect  from  a  minister  wlio  has  the  audacity  to  assert 
the  king's  right  to  land  as  many  foreign  troops  as  he  pleases 
without  the  previous  consent  of  parUament?  If  this  doctrine  be  true, 
the  boasted  equilibrium  of  the  constitution,  all  the  barriers  which  the 
wisdom  of  our  ancestors  have  opposed  to  the  encroachments  of  arbi- 
trary power,  are  idle,  ineffectual  precautions.  For  we  have  only  to 
suppose  for  a  moment  an  inclination  in  the  royal  breast  to  overturn  our 
liberties,  and  of  what  avail  is  the  nicest  internal  arrangement  against 
a  foreign  force?  Our  constitution,  on  this  principle,  is  the  absurdest 
system. that  was  ever  conceived;  pretending  liberty  for  its  object,  yet 
providing  no  security  against  the  great  antagonist  and  destroyer  of 
liberty, — the  employment  of  military  power  by  the  chief  magistrate. 
Let  a  foreign  army  be  introduced  into  this  or  any  other  country,  and 
quartered  upon  the  subject  without  his  consent,  and  what  is  there 
wanting,  if  such  were  the  design  of  the  prince,  to  complete  the  subjec- 
tion of  that  country  ?  Will  armed  foreigners  be  overawed  by  written 
laws  or  unwritten  customs,  by  the  legal  limitations  of  power,  the  paper 
lines  of  demarkation  ?  But  Mr.  Pitt  contends,  tliat  though  the  sovereign 
may  land  foreign  troops  at  his  pleasure,  he  cannot  subsist  them  without 
the  aid  of  parliament.  He  may  overrun  his  dominions  with  a  mercenary 
army,  it  seems,  but  after  he  has  subdued  his  subjects,  he  is  compelled 
to  have  recourse  to  them  for  supplies.  What  a  happy  contrivance ! 
Unfortunately,  however,  it  is  found  that  princes  with  the  unlimited 
command  of  armies,  have  hit   upon  a  nearer  and  more  efficacious 


42      APOLOGY  FOR  THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS. 

method  of  raising  supplies  than  by  an  act  of  parliament.  But  it  is 
needless  any  further  to  expose  the  effrontery,  or  detect  the  sophistry 
of  this  shameless  apostate.  The  character  of  Pitt  is  written  in  sun- 
beams. A  veteran  in  frauds  while  in  the  bloom  of  youth,  betraying 
first,  and  then  persecuting  his  earliest  friends  and  co\inexions,  falsifying 
every  promise,  and  violating  every  political  engagement,  ever  making 
the  fairest  professions  a  prelude  to  the  darkest  actions,  punishing  with 
the  utmost  rigour  the  publisher  of  the  identical  paper  he  himself  had 
circulated,*  are  traits  in  the  conduct  of  Pitt  which  entitle  him  to  a  fatal 
pre-eminence  in  g-uilt.  The  qualities  of  this  man  balance  in  an  extra- 
ordinary manner,  and  sustain  each  other:  the  influence  of  his  station, 
the  extent  of  his  enormities,  invest  him  with  a  kind  of  splendour,  and 
the  contempt  we  feel  for  his  meanness  and  duplicity  is  lost  in  the  dread 
of  his  machinations,  and  the  abhorrence  of  his  crimes.  Too  long  has  he 
insulted  the  patience  of  his  countrymen ;  nor  ought  we,  when  we  observe 
the  indifference  with  which  the  iniquities  of  Pitt's  administration  are 
viewed,  to  reproach  the  Romans  for  tamely  submitting  to  the  tyranny 
of  Caligula  or  Domitian. 

We  had  fondly  hoped  a  mild  philosophy  was  about  to  diffuse  over 
the  globe  the  triumph  of  liberty  and  peace.  But  alas !  these  hopes 
are  fled.  The  continent  presents  little  but  one  wide  picture  of  deso- 
lation, misery,  and  crimes :  on  the  earth  distress  of  nations  and  per- 
plexity, meris  hearts  failing  them  for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those 
things  which  are  coming  on  the  earth. 

That  the  seeds  of  public  convulsions  are  sown  in  every  country  of 
Europe  (our  own  not  excepted)  it  w^ere  vain  to  deny,  seeds  which, 
without  the  wisest  precautions  and  the  most  conciliating  councfls,  will 
break  out,  it  is  to  be  feared,  in  the  overthrow  of  all  governments. 
How  this  catastrophe  may  be  averted,  or  how,  should  that  be  impossi- 
ble, its  evils  may  be  mitigated  and  diminished,  demands  the  deepest 
consideration  of  every  European  statesman.  The  ordinary  routine  of 
ministerial  chicanery  is  quite  unequal  to  the  task.  A  philosophic 
comprehension  of  mind,  which,  leaving  the  beaten  road  of  politics, 
shall  adapt  hself  to  new  situations  and  profit  by  the  vicissitudes  of 
opinion,  equally  removed  from  an  attachment  to  antiquated  forms  and 
useless  innovations,  capable  of  rising  above  the  emergency  of  the 
moment  to  the  most  remote  consequences  of  a  transaction  ;  combining 
the  past,  the  present,  and  die  future,  and  knowing  how  to  defend  with 
firmness,  or  concede  with  dignity  ;  these  are  the  qualities  which  the 
situation  of  Europe  renders  indispensable.  It  w^ould  be  a  mockery  of 
our  present  ministry  to  ask  whether  they  possess  those  qualities. 

With  respect  to  the  following  Apology  for  the  Freedom  of  the  Press, 
the  author  begs  leave  to  claim  the  reader's  indulgence  to  its  numer- 
ous imperfections,  and  hopes  he  will  recollect,  as  an  excuse  for  the 
warmth  of  his  expressions,  it  is  an  eulogium  on  a  dead  friend. 

*  Mr.  Holt,  a  printer,  at  Newark,  is  now  imprisoned  in  Newgate  for  two  years,  for  reprinting 
verbatim,  An  Address  to  the  People  on  Reform,  which  was  sanctioned  for  certain,  and  probably 
written,  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Mr.  Pitt. 


ORIGINAL    PREFACE. 


The  accidental  detention  of  the  following  pamphlet  in  the  press 
longer  than  was  expected  gave  me  an  opportunity  before  it  was  pub- 
lished of  seeing  Bishop  Horsley's  Sermon,  preached  before  the  House 
of  Lords,  on  the  30th  of  January ;  and  as  its  contents  are  relevant  to 
my  subject,  a  few  remarks  upon  it  may  not  be  improper.  His  lordship 
sets  out  with  a  severe  censure  of  that  '■'■  freedom  of  dispute''''  on  matters 
of  "  such  high  importance  as  the  origin  oj  government,  and  the  authority 
of  sovereigns  "  in  which  he  laments  it  has  been  the  '■''folly  of  this  coun- 
try for  several  years  past''''  to  indulge.  If  his  lordship  has  not  inquired 
into  those  subjects  himself,  he  can'  with  little  propriety  pretend  to  decide 
in  so  imperious  and  peremptory  a  manner ;  unless  it  be  a  privilege  of 
his  office  to  dogmatize  without  examination,  or  he  has  discovered  some 
nearer  road  to  truth  than  that  of  reasoning  and  argument.  It  seems  a 
favourite  point  with  a  certain  description  of  men  to  stop  the  progress 
of  inquiry,  and  throw  mankind  back  into  the  darkness  of  the  middle 
ages,  from  a  persuasion  that  ignorance  will  augment  their  power,  as 
objects  look  largest  in  a  mist.  There  is  in  reality  no  other  foundation 
for  that  alarm  which  the  bishop  expresses.  Whatever  is  not  compre- 
hended under  revelation  falls  under  the  mspection  of  reason  ;  and  since 
from  the  whole  course  of  Providence,  it  is  evident  that  all  political 
events  and  all  the  revolutions  of  government  are  effected  by  the 
instrumentality  of  men,  there  is  no  room  for  supposing  them  too  sacred 
to  be  submitted  to  the  human  faculties.  The  more  minds  there  are 
employed  in  tracing  their  principles  and  efl'ects,  the  greater  probability 
will  there  be  of  the  science  of  civil  policy,  as  well  as  every  other, 
aftaining  to  perfection. 

Bishop  Horsley,  determined  to  preserve  the  character  of  an  original, 
presents  us  with  a  new  set  of  political  principles,  and  endeavours  to 
place  the  exploded  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance 
upon  a  new  foundation.  By  a  curious  distinction  between  the  ground 
of  authority  and  of  obedience,  he  rests  the  former  on  human  compact, 
the  latter  on  divine  obligation.  "  It  is  easy  to  ttnderstand"  he  says, 
"  that  the  principle  of  the  private  citizen's  submission  must  be  quite  a 
distinct  thing  from  the  principle  of  the  sovereign'' s  public  title.  And 
for  this  plain  reason :  The  principle  of  submission  to  bind  the  conscience 
of  every  individual  must  be  something  universally  known.^^  He  then 
proceeds  to  inform  us,  that  the  kingly  title  in  England  is  founded  on 
the  act  of  settlement ;  but  that  as  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 


44  APOLOGY  FOR 

of  the  people  have  never  heard  of  that  act,  the  prhiciple  which  compels 
their  allegiance  must  be  sometliing  distinct  from  it,  with  which  they 
may  all  be  acquainted.  In  this  reasoning,  he  evidently  confounds  the 
obligation  of  an  individual  to  submit  to  the  existing  authority  with  that 
of  the  community  collectively  considered.  For  any  'particular  number 
of  persons  to  set  themselves  by  force  to  oppose  the  established  prac- 
tice of  a  state  is  a  plain  violation  of  the  laws  of  morality,  as  it  would 
be  productive  of  the  utmost  disorder  ;  and  no  government  could  stand 
were  it  permitted  to  individuals  to  counteract  the  general  will,  of 
which,  in  ordinary  cases,  legal  usages  are  the  interpreter.  In  the  worst 
state  of  political  society,  if  a  people  have  not  sufficient  wisdom  or  courage 
to  correct  its  evils  and  assert  their  liberty,  the  atteinptof  individuals  to 
force  improvements  upon  them  is  a  presumption  which  merits  the 
severest  punishment.  Social  order  would  be  inevitably  dissolved,  if  every 
man  declined  a  practical  acquiescence  in  that  political  regulation  which 
he  did  not  personally  approve.  The  duty  of  submission  is,  in  this  light, 
founded  on  principles  which  hold  under  every  government,  and  are 
plain  and  obvious.  But  the  principle  which  attaches  a  people  to  their 
allegiance,  collectively  considered,  must  exactly  coincide  with  the  title 
to  authority ;  as  must  be  evident  from  the  very  meaning  of  the  term 
authority,  which,  as  distinguished  from  force,  signifies  a  right  to  demand 
obedience.  Authority  and  obedience  are  correlative  terms,  and  conse- 
quently in  all  respects  correspond,  and  are  commensurate  with  each 
other. 

"  The  divine  right,''^  his  lordship  says,  "o/  the  first  magistrate  in 
every  polity  to  the  citizeri's  obedience  is  not  of  that  sort  which  it  were 
high-treason  to  claim  for  the  sovereign  of  this  country.  It  is  a  right 
which  in  no  country  can  be  denied,  without  the  highest  of  all  treasons. 
The  denial  of  it  were  treason  against  the  paramount  authority  of  God.^^ 
To  invest  any  human  power  with  these  high  epithets  is  ridiculous  at 
least,  if  not  impious.  The  right  of  a  prince  to  the  obedience  of  his 
subjects,  wherever  it  exists,  may  be  called  divine,  because  we  know 
the  Divhie  Being  is  the  patron  of  justice  and  order ;  but  in  that  sense, 
the  authority  of  a  petty  constable  is  equally  divine ;  nor  can  the  term 
be  applied  with  any  greater  propriety  to  supreme  than  to  subordinate 
magistrates.  As  to  ^'■submission  being  among  the  general  rules  which 
proceed  from  the  will  of  God,  and  have  been  impressed  upon  the  con- 
science of  every  man  by  the  original  constitution  of  the  world,'''  nothing 
more  is  comprehended  under  this  pomp  of  words  than  that  submission 
is,  for  the  most  part,  a  duty — a  sublime  and  interesting  discovery ! 
The  minds  of  princes  are  seldom  of  the  firmest  texture  ;  and  they  who 
fill  their  heads  with  the  magnificent  chimera  of  divine  right  prepare  a 
victim,  where  they  intend  a  god.  Some  species  of  government  is 
essential  to  the  well-being  of  mankind  ;  submission  to  some  species  of 
government  is  consequently  a  duty  ;  but  what  kind  of  government  shall 
be  appointed,  and  to  what  limits  submission  shall  extend,  are  mere 
human  questions,  to  be  adjusted  by  mere  human  reason  and  contrivance. 

As  the  natural  consequence  of  divine  right,  his  lordship  proceeds  to 
inculcate  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance,  in  the 


THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS.  45 

most  unqualified  terms ;  assuming  it  as  a  ])rinciple  to  be  acted  upon 
under  governments  the  most  oppressive,  in  which  he  endeavours  to 
sheUer  himself  under  the  authority  of  PauL  The  apostolic  exhorta- 
tion, as  addressed  to  a  lew  individuals,  and  adapted  to  the  local  cir- 
cumstances ot"  Christians  at  that  period,  admits  an  easy  solution ;  but 
to  imagine  it  prescribes  the  duty  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  is  intended 
to  subject  millions  to  the  capricious  tyranny  of  one  man,  is  a  reflection 
as  well  on  the  character  of  Paul  as  on  Christianity  itself. 

On  principles  of  reason,  the  only  way  to  determine  the  agreement 
of  any  thing  with  the  will  of  God  is  to  consider  its  influence  on  the 
happiness  of  society ;  so  that  in  this  view,  the  question  of  passive 
obedience  is  reduced  to  a  simple  issue  :  Is  it  best  for  the  human  race 
that  every  tyrant  and  usurper  be  submitted  to  without  check  or  con- 
trol ?  It  ought  likewise  to  be  remembered,  that  if  the  doctrine  of  passive 
obedience  be  true,  princes  should  be  taught  it,  and  instructed,  that  to 
whatever  excesses  of  cruelty  and  caprice  they  proceed,  they  may 
expect  no  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  people.  If  this  maxim  appear 
to  be  conducive  to  general  good,  we  may  fairly  presume  it  concurs 
whh  the  will  of  the  Deity ;  but  if  it  appear  pregnant  with  the  most 
mischievous  consequences,  it  must  disclaim  such  support.  From  the 
known  perfection  of  God,  we  conclude  he  wills  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind ;  and  that  though  he  condescends  not  to  interpose  miraculously, 
that  kind  of  civd  polity  is  most  pleasing  in  his  eye  which  is  produc- 
tive of  the  greatest  felicity. 

On  a  comparison  of  free  with  arbitrary  governments,  we  perceive 
the  former  are  distinguished  from  the  latter  by  imparting  a  much 
greater  share  of  happiness  to  those  who  live  under  them  ;  and  this  in 
a  manner  too  uniform  to  be  hnputed  to  chance  or  secret  causes.  He 
who  wills  the  end  must  will  the  means  which  ascertain  it.  His  lord- 
ship endeavours  to  diminish  the  dread  of  despotic  government,  by 
observing,  that  in  its  worst  state  it  is  attended  with  more  good  than 
ill,  and  that  the  "  end  of  government  under  all  its  abuses  is  generally 
answered  hy  it.'''  Admitting  this  to  be  true,  it  is  at  best  but  a  consola- 
tion proper  to  be  applied  where  there  is  no  remedy,  and  aflbrds  no 
reason  why  we  should  not  mitigate  political  as  well  as  other  evils,  when 
it  lies  in  our  power.  We  endeavoiu'to  correct  the  diseases  of  the  eye, 
or  of  any  other  organ,  though  the  malady  be  not  such  as  renders  it 
useless. 

The  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  is  so  repugnant  to  the  genuine 
feelings  of  human  nature,  that  it  can  never  be  completely  acted  on ; 
a  secret  dread  that  popular  vengeance  will  awake,  and  nature  assert 
her  rights,  imposes  a  restraint  which  the  most  determined  despotism 
is  not  able  to  shake  ofl".  The  rude  reason  of  the  multitude  nuiy  be 
perplexed,  but  the  sentiments  of  the  heart  are  not  easily  perverted. 

In  adjusting  the  diflerent  parts  of  his  theory,  the  learned  bishop 
appears  a  good  deal  embarrassed.  " It  will  be  readily  admitted^''  he 
says  (p.  9),  "  that  of  all  sovereigns,  none  reign  by  so  fair  and  just  a 
title  as  those  who  derive  their  claim  from  some  such  public  act  {as  the 
act  of  settlement)  of  the  iiation  tchlch  they  govern."     That  there  are 


46  APOLOGY  FOR 

different  degrees  in  justice,  and  even  in  diviiic  right  (which  his  lord- 
ship declares  all  sovereigns  possess),  is  a  very  singular  idea.  Common 
minds  would  be  ready  to  imagine,  however  various  the  modes  oiinjustice 
may  be,  justice  were  a  thing  absolute  and  invariable,  nor  would  they 
conceive  how  "  a  divine  right,  a  right  the  denial  of  which  is  high-treason 
against  the  authority  of  God,"  can  be  increased  by  the  act  of  a  nation. 
But  this  is  not  all.  It  is  no  just  inference  (he  tells  us)  that  the  obli- 
gation upon  the  private  citizen  to  submit  himself  to  the  authority  thus 
raised  arises  wholly  from  the  act  of  the  people  conferring  h,  or  from 
their  compact  with  the  person  on  whom  it  is  conferred.  But  if  the 
sovereign  derives  his  claim  from  this  act  of  the  nation,  how  comes  it 
that  the  obligation  of  the  people  to  submit  to  his  claim  does  not  spring 
from  the  same  act  1  Because  "  in  all  these  cases,"  he  affirms,  "  the  act 
of  the  people  is  only  the  means  which  Providence  employs  to  advance 
the  new  sovereign  to  his  station.''''  In  the  hand  of  the  Supreme  Being, 
the  whole  agency  of  men  may  be  considered  as  an  instrument ;  but  to 
make  it  appear  that  the  right  of  dominion  is  independent  of  the  people, 
men  must  be  shown  to  be  instruments  in  political  affairs  in  a  more 
absolute  sense  tlian  ordinary.  A  divine  interposition  of  a  more  imme- 
diate kind  must  be  shown,  or  the  mere  consideration  of  God's  being 
the  original  source  of  all  power  will  be  a  weak  reason  for  absolute 
submission.  A.narchy  may  have  potaer  as  well  as  despotism,  and  is 
equally  a  link  in  ihe  great  chain  of  causes  and  effects. 

It  is  not  a  little  extraordinary  that  Bishop  Horsley,  the  apologist  of 
tyranny,  the  patron  of  passive  obedience,  should  affect  to  admire  the 
British  constitution,  whose  freedom  was  attained  by  a  palpable  violation 
of  the  principles  for  which  he  contends.  He  will  not  say  the  barons 
at  Runnemede  acted  on  his  maxims  in  extorting  the  Magna  Charta 
from  King  John,  or  in  demanding  its  confirmation  from  Henry  the 
Third.  If  he  approves  of  their  conduct  he  gives  up  his  cause,  and  is 
compelled  at  least  to  confess  the  principles  of  passive  obedience  were 
not  true  at  that  time ;  if  he  disapproves  of  their  conduct,  he  must,  to 
be  consistent,  reprobate  the  restraints  which  it  imposed  on  kingly 
power.  The  limitations  of  monarchy,  which  his  lordship  pretends  to 
applaud,  were  effected  by  resistance ;  the  freedom  of  the  British  con- 
stitution flowed  from  a  departure  from  passive  obedience,  and  was 
therefore  stained  with  high-treason  "  against  the  authority  of  God." 
To  these  conclusions  he  must  inevitably  come,  unless  he  can  point  out 
something  peculiar  to  the  spot  of  Runnemede  or  to  the  reign  of  King 
John,  which  confines  the  exception  to  the  general  doctrine  of  submis- 
sion to  that  particular  time  and  place.  With  whatever  colours  the 
advocates  of  passive  obedience  may  varnish  their  theories,  they  must 
of  necessity  be  enemies  to  the  British  constitution.  Its  spirit  they  detest ; 
its  corruptions  they  cherish  ;  and  if  at  present  they  affect  a  zeal  for  its 
preservation,  it  is  only  because  they  despair  of  any  form  of  govern- 
ment being  erected  in  its  stead  which  will  give  equal  permanence  to 
abuses.  Afraid  to  destroy  it  at  once,  they  take  a  malignant  pleasure 
in  seeing  it  waste  by  degrees  under  the  pressure  of  internal  malady. 

Whatever  bears  the  semblance  of  reasoning  in  Bishop  Horslcy's 


THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS. 


47 


discourse  will  be  found,  I  trust,  to  have  received  a  satisfactory  answer  • 
but  to  animadvert  with  a  becoming  severity  on  the  temper  it  displays  is 
a  less  easy  task.  To  render  him  the  justice  he  deserves  in  that  respect 
would  demand  "all  the  fierceness  of  his  character. 

We  owe  him  an  acknowledgment  for  the  frankness  with  which  he 
avows  his  decided  preference  of  the  clergy  of  France  to  dissenters  in 
England, — a  sentiment  we  have  often  suspected,  but  have  seldom  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  openly  professed  before. 

"  None,'"  he  asserts,  "  at  this  season,  are  more  entitled  to  our  offices 
of  love  than  those  wlthwhoin  the  difference  is  loide  in  points  of  doctrine, 
discipline,  and  external  rites;  those  venerable  exiles,  the  prelates  and 
clergy  of  the  fallen  church  of  France.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  intercept 
the  compassion  of  the  humane  from  the  unhappy  of  any  nation,  tongue, 
or  people ;  but  the  extreme  tenderness  he  professes  for  the  fallen 
church  of  France  is  well  contrasted  by  his  malignity  towards  dissenters. 
Bishop  Horsley  is  a  man  of  sense :  and  though  doctrine,  discipline, 
and  external  rites  comprehend  the  whole  of  Christianity,  his  tender, 
sympathetic  heart  is  superior  to  prejudice,  and  never  fails  to  recognise 
in  a  persecutor  a  friend  and  a  brother.  Admirable  consistency  in  a 
Protestant  bishop,  to  lament  over  the  fall  of  that  antichrist  whose  over- 
throw is  represented  by  unerring  inspiration  as  an  event  the  most 
splendid  and  happy !  It  is  a  shrewd  presumption  against  the  utility 
of  religious  establishments  that  they  too  often  become  seats  of  intole- 
rance, instigators  to  persecution,  nurseries  of  Bonners  and  of  Horsleys. 

His  lordship  closes  his  invective  against  dissenters,  and  Dr.  Priestley 
in  particular,  by  presenting  a  prayer  in  the  spirit  of  an  indictment. 
We  are  happy  to  hear  of  his  lordship's  prayers,  and  are  obliged  to  him 
for  remembering  us  in  them ;  but  should  be  more  sanguine  in  our  ex- 
pectation of  benefit  if  we  were  not  informed  the  prayers  of  the  righteous 
only  avail  much.  "  Miserable  men,''''  he  tells  us,  we  "  are  in  the  gall 
of  bitterness,  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity.''''  With  respect  to  the  first, 
we  must  have  plenty  of  that  article,  since  he  has  distilled  his  own ; 
and  if  the  bonds  of  iniquity  are  not  added,  it  is  only  because  they  are 
not  within  the  reach  of  his  mighty  malice. 

It  is  time  to  turn  from  this  disgusting  picture  of  sanctimonious  hypo- 
crisy and  priestly  insolence  to  address  a  word  to  the  reader  on  the 
following  pamphlet.  The  political  sentiments  of  Dr.  Horsley  are  in 
truth  of  too  little  consequence  in  themselves  to  engage  a  moment's 
curiosity,  and  deserve  attention  only  as  they  indicate  the  spirit  of  the 
times.  The  freedom  with  which  I  have  pointed  out  the  abuses  of 
government  will  be  little  relished  by  the  pusillanimous  and  the  inter- 
ested, but  is,  I  am  certain,  of  that  nature  which  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
people  of  England  never  to  relinquish,  or  suffer  to  be  impaired  by  any 
human  force  or  contrivance.  In  the  present  crisis  of  things,  the  danger 
to  liberty  is  extreme,  and  it  is  requisite  to  address  a  warning  voice  to 
the  nation,  that  may  disturb  its  slumbers,  if  it  cannot  heal  its  lethargy. 
When  we  look  at  the  distraction  and  misery  of  a  neighbouring  country, 
we  behold  a  scene  that  is  enough  to  make  the  most  hardy  republican 
tremble  at  the  idea  of  a  revolution.     Nothing  but  an  obstinate  adhe- 


48     APOLOGY  FOR  THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS. 

rence  to  abuses  can  ever  push  the  people  of  England  to  that  fatal 
extremity.  But  if  the  state  of  things  continues  to  grow  worse  and 
worse,  if  the  friends  of  reform,  the  true  friends  of  their  country,  con- 
tinue to  be  overwhelmed  by  cahunny  and  persecution,  the  confusion  will 
probably  be  dreadful,  the  misery  extreme,  and  the  calamities  that  await 
us  too  great  for  human  calculation. 

What  must  be  the  guilt  of  those  men  who  can  calmly  contemplate 
the  approach  of  anarchy  or  despotism,  and  rather  choose  to  behold  the 
ruin  of  their  country  than  resign  the  smallest  pittance  of  private  emolu- 
ment and  advantage?  To  reconcile  the  disaffected,  to  remove  discon- 
tents, to  allay  animosities,  and  open  a  prospect  of  increasing  happiness 
and  freedom,  is  yet  in  our  power.  But  if  a  contrary  course  be  taken, 
the  sun  of  Great  Britain  is  set  for  ever,  her  glory  departed,  and  her 
history  added  to  the  catalogue  of  the  mighty  empires  which  exhibit  the 
instability  of  all  human  grandeur,  of  empires  which,  after  they  rose 
by  virtue  to  be  the  admiration  of  the  world,  sunk  by  corruption  into 
obscurity  and  contempt.  If  any  thing  shall  then  remain  of  her 
boasted  constitution,  it  will  display  magnificence  in  disorder,  majestic 
desolation,  Babylon  in  ruins,  where,  in  the  midst  of  broken  arches 
and  fallen  columns,  posterity  will  trace  the  monuments  only  of  our 
ancient  freedom ! 


ADVERTISEMENT  TO  THE  NEW  EDITION 


As  the  following  pamphlet  has  been  long  out  of  print,  the  reader 
uill  naturally  expect  some  reason  should  be  assigned  for  its  republica- 
tion. I  might  satisfy  myself  with  safely  affirming  that  I  have  no 
alternative  left  but  either  to  publish  it  myself,  or  to  permit  it  to  be  done 
by  others,  since  the  copyright  has  long  since  transpired  ;  and  I  have 
been  under  the  necessity  of  claiming  as  a  favour  what  I  could  not  insist 
upon  as  a  right. 

In  addition  to  this,  a  most  erroneous  inference  has  been  drawn  from 
my  sufiering  it  to  fall  into  neglect.  It  has  been  often  insinuated  that 
my  political  principles  have  undergone  a  revolution,  and  that  I  have 
renounced  the  opinions  which  it  was  the  object  of  this  pamphlet  to 
establish.  I  must  beg  leave,  however,  to  assert,  that  fashionable  as 
such  changes  have  been,  and  sanctioned  by  many  conspicuous  exam- 
ples, I  am  not  ambitious  of  the  honour  attached  to  this  species  of 
conversion,  from  a  conviction  that  he  who  has  once  been  the  advocate 
of  freedom  and  of  reform,  will  find  it  much  easier  to  change  his  con- 
duct than  his  principles — to  worship  the  golden  image  than  to  believe 
in  the  divinity  of  the  idol.  A  reluctance  to  appear  as  a  political  writer, 
an  opinion,  whether  well  or  ill  founded,  that  the  Christian  ministry  is 
in  danger  of  losing  something  of  its  energy  and  sanctity  by  embarking 
on  the  stormy  element  of  political  debate,  were  the  motives  that  de- 
termined me,  and  which,  had  I  not  already  engaged,  would  probably 
have  effectually  deterred  me  from  writing  upon  politics.  These  scru- 
ples have  given  way  to  feelings  still  stronger,  to  my  extreme  aversion 
to  be  classed  with  political  apostates,  and  lo  the  suspicion  of  being 
deterred  from  the  honest  avowal  of  my  sentiments  on  subjects  of  great 
moment  by  hopes  and  fears  to  which,  through  every  period  of  my  life, 
I  have  been  a  total  stranger.  The  effect  of  increasing  years  has  been 
to  augment,  if  possible,  my  attachment  to  the  principles  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  and  to  the  cause  of  reform  as  inseparably  combined 
with  their  preservation  ;  and  few  things  would  give  me  more  uneasiness 
than  to  have  it  supposed  I  could  ever  become  hostile  or  indifferent  to 
these  objects. 

The  alterations  in  the  present  edition  are  nearly  all  of  minor  import- 
ance ;  they  chiefly  consist  of  slight  literary  corrections,  which  very 
rarely  affect  the  sense.  It  was  not  my  wish  or  intention  to  impair 
the  identity  of  the  performance.  There  is  in  several  parts  an  acrimony 
and  vehemence  in  the  language,  which  the  candid  reader  will  put  to 
Vol.  II.— D 


50  APOLOGY  FOR  THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS. 

the  accouDt  of  juvenile  ardour,  and  which,  should  it  be  deemed  exces. 
sive,  he  will  perceive  could  not  be  corrected  without  producing  a  new 
composition.  One  passage  in  the  preface,  delineating  the  character 
of  the  late  Bishop  Horsley,  is  omitted.  On  mature  reflection,  it  ap- 
peared to  the  writer  not  quite  consistent  either  with  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  or  with  the  reverence  due  to  departed  genius.  For  the 
severity  with  which  he  has  treated  the  political  character  of  Mr.  Pitt 
he  is  not  disposed  to  apologize,  because  he  feels  the  fullest  conviction 
that  the  policy,  foreign  and  domestic,  of  that  celebrated  statesman,  has 
inflicted  a  more  incurable  wound  on  the  constitution,  and  entailed  more 
permanent  and  irreparable  calamities  on  the  nation,  than  that  of  any 
other  minister  in  the  annals  of  British  history.  A  simple  reflection 
will  be  sufficient  to  evince  the  unparalleled  magnitude  of  his  apostacy, 
v/hich  is,  that  the  memory  of  the  son  of  Lord  Chatham,  the  vehement 
opposer  of  the  American  war,  the  champion  of  reform,  and  the  idol  of 
the  people,  has  become  the  rallying  point  of  toryism,  the  type  and 
symbol  of  whatever  is  most  illiberal  in  principle  and  intolerant  in 
practice. 

1821. 


AN    APOLOGY. 


SECTION    I. 

On  the  Right  of  Public  Discussion. 

Solon,  the  celebrated  legislator  of  Athens,  we  are  told,  enacted  a 
law  for  the  capital  punishment  of  every  citizen  who  should  continue 
neuter  when  parties  ran  high  in  that  republic.  He  considered,  it 
should  seem,  the  declining  to  take  a  decided  part  on  great  and  critical 
occasions  an  indication  of  such  a  culpable  indifierence  to  the  interests 
of  the  commonwealth  as  couid  be  expiated  only  by  death.  While  we 
blame  the  rigour  of  this  law,  we  must  confess  the  principle  on  which 
it  was  founded  is  just  and  solid.  In  a  political  contest  relating  to 
particular  men  or  measures,  a  well-wisher  to  his  country  may  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  silent ;  but  when  the  great  interests  of  a  nation  are 
at  stake,  it  becomes  every  man  to  act  with  firmness  and  vigour.  I 
consider  the  present  as  a  season  of  this  nature,  and  shall  therefore 
make  no  apology  for  laying  before  the  public  the  reflections  it  has 
suggested. 

The  most  capital  advantage  an  enlightened  people  can  enjoy  is  the 
liberty  of  discussing  every  subject  which  can  fall  within  the  compass  of 
the  human  mind  :  while  tliis  remains,  freedom  will  flourish  ;  but  should 
it  be  lost  or  impaired,  its  principles  will  neither  be  well  understood  nor 
long  retained.  To  render  the  magistrate  a  judge  of  truth,  and  engage 
his  authority  in  the  suppression  of  opinions,  shows  an  inattention  to 
the  nature  and  design  of  political  society.  When  a  nation  forms  a 
government,  it  is  not  wisdom  but  power  which  they  place  in  the  hand 
of  the  magistrate ;  from  whence  it  follows,  his  concern  is  only  with 
those  objects  which  poiver  can  operate  upon.  On  this  account  the 
administration  of  justice,  the  protection  of  property,  and  the  defence  of 
every  member  of  the  community  from  violence  and  outrage  fall  natu- 
rally within  the  province  of  the  civil  ruler,  for  these  may  all  be  accom- 
plished by  power ;  but  an  attempt  to  distinguish  truth  from  error,  and 
to  countenance  one  set  of  opinions  to  the  prejudice  of  another,  is  to 
apply  power  in  a  manner  mischievous  and  absurd.  To  comprehend 
the  reasons  on  which  the  right  of  public  discussion  is  founded,  it  is 
equisite  to  remark  the  difference  between  sentiment  and  conduct.  The 
behaviour  of  men  in  society  will  be  influenced  by  motives  drawn  from 
the  prospect  of  goad  and  evil :  here  then  is  the  proper  department  of 

D2 


52  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF 

government,  as  it  is  capable  of  applying  that  good  and  evil  by  which 
actions  are  determined.  Truth,  on  the  contrary,  is  quite  of  a  different 
nature,  being  supported  only  by  evidence,  and  as  when  this  is  repre- 
sented we  cannot  withhold  our  assent,  so  where  this  is  wanting  no 
power  or  authority  can  command  it. 

However  some  may  affect  to  dread  controversy,  it  can  never  be 
of  ultimate  disadvantage  to  the  interests  of  truth  or  the  happiness 
of  mankind.  Where  it  is  indulged  in  its  full  extent,  a  multitude 
of  ridiculous  opinions  will  no  doubt  be  obtruded  upon  the  public ;  but 
any  ill  influence  they  may  produce  cannot  continue  long,  as  they  are 
sure  to  be  opposed  with  at  least  equal  ability  and  that  superior  ad- 
vantage which  is  ever  attendant  on  truth.  The  colours  with  which 
wit  or  eloquence  may  have  adorned  a  false  system  will  gradually  die 
away,  sophistry  be  detected,  and  every  thing  estimated  at  length 
according  to  its  true  value.  Publications,  besides,  like  every  thing 
else  that  is  human,  are  of  a  mixed  nature,  where  truth  is  often  blended 
with  falsehood,  and  important  hints  suggested  in  the  midst  of  much 
impertinent  or  pernicious  matter ;  nor  is  there  any  way  of  separating 
the  precious  from  the  vile  but  by  tolerating  the  whole.  Where  the 
right  of  unlimited  inquiry  is  exerted,  the  human  faculties  will  be  upon 
the  advance ;  where  it  is  relinquished,  they  will  be  of  necessity  at  a 
stand,  and  will  probably  decline. 

If  we  have  recourse  to  experience,  that  kind  of  enlarged  experience 
in  particular  which  history  furnishes,  we  shall  not  be  apt  to  entertain 
any  violent  alarm  at  the  greatest  liberty  of  discussion :  we  shall  there 
see  that  to  this  we  are  indebted  for  those  improvements  in  arts  and 
sciences  which  have  meliorated  in  so  great  a  degree  the  condition  of 
mankind.  The  middle  ages,  as  they  are  called,  the  darkest  period 
of  which  we  have  any  particular  accounts,  were  remarkable  for 
two  things, — the  extreme  ignorance  that  prevailed,  and  an  excessive 
veneration  for  received  opinions ;  circumstances  which,  having  been 
always  united,  operate  on  each  other,  it  is  plain,  as  cause  and  effect. 
The  whole  compass  of  science  was  in  those  times  subject  to  restraint ; 
every  new  opinion  was  looked  upon  as  dangerous.  To  affirm  the 
globe  we  inhabit  to  be  round  was  deemed  heresy,  and  for  asserting  its 
motion  the  immortal  Galileo  was  confined  in  the  prisons  of  the  inquisi- 
tion. Yet  it  is  remarkable,  so  little  are  the  human  faculties  fitted  for 
restraint,  that  its  utmost  rigour  was  never  able  to  effect  a  thorough 
unanimity,  or  to  preclude  the  most  alarming  discussions  and  contro- 
versies. For  no  sooner  was  one  point  settled  than  another  was  started ; 
and  as  the  articles  on  which  men  professed  to  differ  were  always  ex- 
tremely few  and  subtle,  they  came  the  more  easily  into  contact,  and 
their  animosities  were  the  more  violent  and  concentrated.  The  shape 
of  the  tonsure,  or  manner  in  which  a  monk  should  shave  his  head,  would 
then  throw  a  whole  kingdom  into  convulsions.  In  proportion  as  the 
world  has  become  more  enlightened,  this  unnatural  policy  of  restraint 
has  retired,  the  sciences  it  has  entirely  abandoned,  and  has  taken  its 
last  stand  on  religion  and  politics.  The  first  of  these  was  long  con- 
sidered of  a  nature  so  pectUiarly  sacred,  that  every  attempt  to  alter  it, 


PUBLIC  DISCUSSION.  53 

or  to  impair  the  reverence  for  its  received  institutions,  was  regarded 
under  the  name  of  heresy  as  a  crime  of  the  firsc  magnitude!  Yet 
dangerous  as  free  inquiry  may  have  been  looked  upon  when  extended 
to  the  principles  of  religion,  there  is  no  department  where  it  was  more 
necessary,  or  its  interference  more  decidedly  beneficial.  By  nobly 
daring  to  exert  it  when  all  the  powers  on  earth  were  combined  in  its 
suppression,  did  Luther  accomplish  that  reformation  which  drew  forth 
primitive  Christianity,  long  hidden  and  concealed  under  a  load  of 
abuses,  to  the  view  of  an  awakened  and  astonished  world.  So  great 
is  the  force  of  truth  when  it  has  once  gained  the  attention,  that  all  the 
arts  and  policy  of  the  court  of  Rome,  aided  throughout  every  part  of 
Europe  by  a  veneration  for  antiquity,  the  prejudices  of  the  vulgar,  and 
the  cruelty  of  despots,  were  fairly  baffled  and  confounded  by  the  op- 
position of  a  solitary  monk.  And  had  this  principle  of  free  inquuy 
been  permitted  in  succeeding  times  to  have  full  scope,  Christianity 
would  at  this  period  have  been  much  better  understood,  and  the  ani- 
mosity of  sects  considerably  abated.  Religious  toleration  has  never 
been  complete  even  in  England ;  but  having  prevailed  more  here  than 
perhaps  in  any  other  country,  tiiere  is  no  place  where  the  doctrines  of 
religion  have  been  set  in  so  clear  a  light  or  its  truth  so  ably  defended. 
The  writings  of  Deists  have  contributed  much  to  this  end.  Whoever 
will  compare  the  late  defences  of  Christianity  by  Locke,  Butler,  or 
Clark  with  those  of  the  ancient  apologists,  will  discern  in  the  former 
far  more  precision  and  an  abler  method  of  reasoning  than  in  the  latter ; 
which  must  be  attributed  chieliy  to  the  superior  spirit  of  inquiry  by 
which  modern  times  are  distinguished.  Whatever  alarm  then  may 
have  been  taken  at  the  liberty  of  discussion,  religion  it  is  plain  hath 
been  a  gainer  by  it ;  its  abuses  corrected,  and  its  divine  authority  set- 
tled on  a  firmer  basis  than  ever. 

Though  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  making  these  preliminary  re- 
marks on  the  influence  of  free  inquiry  in  general,  what  I  have  more 
immediately  in  view  is  to  defend  its  exercise  in  relation  to  government. 
This  being  an  institution  purely  human,  one  w^ould  imagine  it  were 
the  proper  province  for  freedom  of  discussion  in  its  utmost  extent.  It 
is  surely  just  that  every  one  should  have  a  right  to  examine  those 
measures  by  which  the  happiness  of  all  may  be  afi'ected.  The  control 
of  the  public  mind  over  the  conduct  of  ministers,  exerted  through  the 
medium  of  the  press,  has  been  regarded  by  the  best  writers  both  in 
our  country  and  on  the  continent  as  tlie  main  support  of  our  liberties. 
While  this  remains  we  cannot  be  enslaved ;  when  it  is  impaired  or 
diminished  we  shall  soon  cease  to  be  free. 

Under  pretence  of  its  being  seditious  to  express  any  disapprobation 
of  the  form  of  our  government,  the  most  alarming  attempts  are  made 
to  wrest  the  liberty  of  the  press  out  of  our  hands.  It  is  far  from  being 
my  intention  to  set  up  a  defence  of  republican  principles,  as  I  am  per- 
suaded whatever  imperfections  may  attend  the  British  constitution,  it 
is  competent  to  all  the  ends  of  government,  and  the  best  adapted  of 
any  to  the  actual  situation  of  tltis  kingdom.  Yet  I  am  convinced  there 
is  no  crime  in  being  a  republican,  and_that  while  he  obeys  the  laws, 


54  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF 

every  man  has  a  right  to  entertain  what  sentiments  he  pleases  on  our 
form  of  government,  and  to  discnss  this  with  the  same  freedom  as  any 
other  topic.  In  proof  of  this  I  shall  beg  the  reader's  attention  to  the 
following  arguments. 

1.  We  may  apply  to  this  point  in  particular  the  observation  that  has 
been  made  on  the  influence  of  free  inquiry  in  general,  that  it  will  issue 
in  the  firmer  establishment  of  truth  and  the  overthrow  of  error.  Every 
thing  that  is  really  excellent  will  bear  examination,  it  will  even  invite 
it ;  and  the  more  narrowly  it  is  surveyed,  to  the  more  advantage  it  will 
appear.  Is  our  constitution  a  good  one  1  it  will  gain  in  our  esteem  by 
the  severest  inquiry.  Is  it  bad?  then  its  imperfections  should  be  laid 
open  and  exposed.  Is  it,  as  is  generally  confessed,  of  a  mixed  nature, 
excellent  in  theory,  but  defective  in  its  practice  1  freedom  of  discussion 
will  be  still  requisite  to  point  out  the  nature  and  source  of  its  corruptions, 
and  apply  suitable  remedies.  If  our  constitution  be  that  perfect  model 
of  excellence  it  is  represented,  it  may  boldly  appeal  to  the  reason  of  an 
enlightened  age,  and  need  not  rest  on  the  support  of  an  implicit  faith. 

2.  Government  is  the  creature  of  the  people,  and  that  which  they 
have  created  they  surely  have  a  right  to  examine.  The  great  Author 
of  nature,  having  placed  the  right  of  dominion  in  no  particular  hands, 
hath  left  every  point  relating  to  it  to  be  settled  by  the  consent  and 
approbation  of  mankind.  In  spite  of  the  attempts  of  sophistry  to  con- 
ceal the  origin  of  political  right,  it  must  inevitably  rest  at  length  on  the 
acquiescence  of  the  people.  In  the  case  of  individuals  it  is  extremely 
plain.  If  one  man  should  overwhelm  another  with  superior  force,  and 
after  completely  subduing  him  under  the  name  of  government,  transmit 
him  in  this  condition  to  his  heirs,  every  one  would  exclaim  against  such 
an  act  of  injustice.  But  whether  the  object  of  his  oppression  be  one 
or  a  million  can  make  no  diflercnce  in  its  nature,  the  idea  of  equity 
having  no  relation  to  that  of  numbers.  Mr.  Burke,  with  some  other 
authors,  are  aware  that  an  original  right  of  dominion  can  only  be  ex- 
plained by  resolving  it  into  the  will  of  the  people,  yet  contend  that  it 
becomes  inalienable  and  independent  by  length  of  time  and  prescrip- 
tion. This  fatal  mistake  appears  to  me  to  have  arisen  from  confound- 
ing the  right  of  dominion  with  that  of  private  property.  Possession  for 
a  certain  time,  it  is  true,  vests  in  the  latter  a  complete  right,  or  there 
would  be  no  end  to  vexatious  claims  ;  not  to  mention  that  it  is  of  no  con- 
sequence to  society  where  property  lies,  provided  its  regulations  be  clear 
and  its  possession  undisturbed.  For  the  same  reason  it  is  of  the  essence 
of  private  property  to  be  held  for  the  sole  use  of  the  owner,  with  liberty  to 
employ  it  in  what  way  he  pleases  consistent  with  the  safety  of  the  com- 
munity. But  the  right  of  dominion  has  none  of  the  qualities  that  dis- 
tinguish private  possession.  It  is  never  indifferent  to  the  community 
in  whose  hands  it  is  lodged,  nor  is  it  intended  in  any  degree  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  conduct  it.  Being  derived  from  the  will  of  the 
people,  explicit  or  implied,  and  existing  solely  for  their  use,  it  can  no 
more  become  independent  of  that  will  than  water  can  rise  above  its 
source.  But  if  we  allow  the  people  are  the  true  origin  of  political 
power,  it  is  absurd  to  require  them  to  resign  the  right  of  discussing 


PUBLIC  DISCUSSION.  55 

any  question  that  can  arise  either  upon  its  form  or  its  measures,  as 
this  would  put  it  for  ever  out  of  their  power  to  revoke  the  trust  which 
they  have  placed  in  the  hands  of  their  rulers. 

3.  If  it  be  a  crime  for  a  subject  of  Great  Britain  to  express  his  dis- 
approbation of  that  form  of  government  under  which  he  lives,  the  same 
conduct  must  be  condemned  in  the  inhabitant  of  any  other  country. 
Perhaps  it  will  be  said  a  distinction  ought  to  be  made  on  account  of 
the  superior  excellence  of  the  British  constitution.  This  superiority 
I  am  not  disposed  to  contest,  yet  cannot  allow  it  to  be  a  proper  reply, 
as  it  takes  for  granted  that  which  is  supposed  to  be  a  matter  of  debate 
and  inquiry.  Let  a  government  be  ever  so  despotic,  it  is  a  chance  if 
those  who  share  in  the  administration  are  not  loud  in  proclaiming  its 
excellence.  Go  into  Turkey,  and  the  pachas  of  the  provinces  will 
probably  tell  you  that  the  Turkish  government  is  the  most  perfect  in  the 
world.  If  the  excellence  of  a  constitution,  then,  is  assigned  as  the 
reason  that  none  should  be  permitted  to  censure  it,  who,  I  ask,  is  to 
determine  on  this  its  excellence  ?  If  you  reply,  every  man's  own 
reason  will  determine,  you  concede  the  very  point  I  am  endeavouring 
to  establish,  the  liberty  of  free  inquiry :  if  you  reply,  our  rulers,  you 
admit  a  principle  that  equally  applies  to  every  government  in  the  world, 
and  will  lend  no  more  support  to  the  British  constitution  than  to  that 
of  Turkey  or  Algiers. 

4.  An  inquiry  respecting  the  comparative  excellence  of  civil  con- 
stitutions can  be  forbidden  on  no  other  pretence  than  that  of  its  tending 
to  sedition  and  anarchy.  This  plea,  however,  will  have  little  weight 
with  those  who  reflect  to  how  many  ill  purposes  it  has  been  already 
applied ;  and  that  when  the  example  has  been  once  introduced  of  sup- 
pressing opinions  on  account  of  their  imagined  ill  tendency,  it  has 
seldom  been  confined  within  any  safe  or  reasonable  bounds.  The 
doctrine  of  tendencies  is  extremely  subtle  and  complicated.  What- 
ever would  diminish  our  veneration  for  the  Christian  religion,  or  shake 
our  belief  in  the  being  of  a  God,  will  be  allowed  to  be  of  a  very  evil 
tendency  ;  yet  few,  I  imagine,  who  are  acquainted  with  history,  would 
wish  to  see  the  writings  of  skeptics  or  Deists  suppressed  by  law  ;  being 
persuaded  it  would  be  lodging  a  very  dangerous  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  magistrate,  and  that  truth  is  best  supported  by  its  owm  evidence. 
This  dread  of  certain  opinions  on  account  of  their  tendency  has  been 
the  copious  spring  of  all  those  religious  wars  and  persecutions  which 
are  the  disgrace  and  calamity  of  modern  times. 

Whatever  danger  may  result  from  the  freedom  of  political  debate 
in  some  countries,  no  apprehension  from  tliat  quarter  need  be  enter- 
tained in  our  own.  Free  inquiry  will  never  endanger  the  existence  of 
a  good  government ;  scarcely  will  it  be  able  to  work  the  overthrow 
of  a  bad  one.  So  uncertain  is  the  issue  of  all  revolutions,  so  turbu- 
lent and  bloody  the  scenes  that  too  often  usher  them  in,  the  prejudice 
on  the  side  of  an  ancient  establishment  so  great,  and  the  interests  in- 
volved in  its  support  so  powerful,  that  while  it  provides  in  any  tolerable 
measure  for  the  happiness  of  the  people,  it  may  defy  all  the  efforts  of 
its  enemies. 


56  ON  ASSOCIATIONS. 

The  real  danger  to  every  free  government  is  less  from  its  enemies 
than  from  itself.  Should  it  resist  the  most  temperate  reforms,  and 
maintain  its  abuses  with  obstinacy,  imputing  complaint  to  faction, 
calumniating  its  friends,  and  smiling  only  on  its  flatterers ;  should  it 
encourage  informers  and  hold  out  rewards  to  treachery,  turning  every 
man  into  a  spy,  and  every  neighbourhood  into  the  seat  of  an  inquisi- 
tion, let  it  not  hope  it  can  long  conceal  its  tyranny  under  the  mask  of 
freedom.  These  are  the  avenues  through  which  despotism  must 
enter;  these  are  the  arts  at  which  integrity  sickens,  and  freedom  turns 
pale. 


SECTION    11. 

On  Associations. 

The  associations  that  have"  been  formed  in  various  parts  of  the 
kingdom  appear  to  me  to  have  trodden  very  nearly  in  the  steps  I 
have  been  describing.  Nothing  could  have  justified  this  extraordinary 
mode  of  combination  but  the  actual  existence  of  those  insurrections 
and  plots,  of  which  no  traces  have  appeared,  except  in  a  speech 
from  the  throne.  They  merit  a  patent  for  insurrections  who  have  dis- 
covered the  art  of  conducting  them  with  so  much  silence  and  secrecy, 
that  in  the  very  places  where  they  are  affirmed  to  have  happened  they 
have  been  heard  of  only  by  rebound  from  the  cabinet.  Happy  had  it 
been  for  the  repose  of  unoffending  multitudes  if  the  associators  had 
been  able  to  put  their  mobs  in  possession  of  this  important  discovery 
before  they  set  them  in  motion. 

No  sooner  had  the  ministry  spread  an  alarm  through  the  kingdom 
against  republicans  and  levellers,  than  an  assembly  of  court-syco- 
phants, with  a  placeman  at  their  head,  entered  into  what  they  termed 
an  association  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor  tavern,  whence  they  issued 
accounts  of  their  proceedings.  This  was  the  primitive,  the  metropol- 
itan association,  which,  with  few  exceptions,  gave  the  tone  to  the  suc- 
ceeding, who  did  little  more  dian  copy  its  language  and  its  spirit.  As 
the  popular  ferment  has,  it  may  be  hoped,  by  this  time  in  some  mea- 
sure subsided,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  endeavour  to  estimate  the 
utility  and  develop  the  principles  of  these  societies. 

1.  The  first  particular  that  engages  the  attention  is  their  singular 
and  unprecedented  nature.  The  object  is  altogether  new.  The  po- 
litical societies  that  have  been  hitherto  formed  never  thought  of  inter- 
fering with  the  operations  of  law,  but  were  content  with  giving,  by 
their  union,  greater  force  and  publicity  to  their  sentiments.  The  dif- 
fusion of  principles  was  their  object,  not  the  suppression ;  and,  con- 
fiding in  the  justness  of  their  cause,  they  challenged  their  enemies 
into  the  field  of  controversy.  These  societies,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
combined  with  an  express  view  to  extinguish  opinions,  and  to  over- 
whelm freedom  of  inquiry  by  the  terrors  of  criminal  prosecution. 
They  pretend  not  to  enlighten  the  people  by  the  spread  of  political 


ON  ASSOCIATIONS.  57 

knowledge,  or  to  confute  the  errors  of  the  system  they  wish  to  dis- 
countenance :  they  breathe  only  the  language  of  menace  ;  their  ele- 
ment is  indictment  and  prosecution,  and  their  criminal  justice  formed 
on  the  model  of  Rhadamanthus,  the  poetic  judge  of  Hell. 

Castigatque,  auditque,  dolos  subigitque  fateri. 

2.  They  are  not  only  new  in  their  nature  and  complexion,  but  are 
unsupported  by  any  just  pretence  of  expedience  or  necessity.  The 
British  constitution  hath  provided  ample  securities  for  its  stability  and 
permanence.  The  prerogatives  of  the  crown  in  all  matters  touching 
its  dignity  are  of  a  nature  so  high  and  weighty  as  may  rather  occa- 
sion alarm  than  need  corroboration.  The  office  of  attorney-general 
is  created  for  the  very  purpose  of  prosecuting  sedition ;  and  he  has 
the  peculiar  privilege  of  filing  a  bill  against  offenders  in  the  king's 
name,  without  the  intervention  of  a  grand  jury.  If  the  public  tran- 
quillity be  threatened,  the  king  can  imbody  the  militia  as  well  as  sta- 
tion the  military  in  the  suspected  places ;  and  Avhen  to  this  is  added 
the  immense  patronage  and  influence  which  flows  from  the  disposal 
of  seventeen  millions  a  year,  it  must  be  evident  the  stability  of  the 
British  government  can  never  be  shaken  by  the  efforts  of  any  minority 
whatever.  It  comprehends  within  itself  all  the  resources  of  defence 
which  the  best  civil  polity  ought  to  possess.  The  permanence  of  every 
government  must  depend,  however,  after  all,  upon  opinion,  a  general 
persuasion  of  its  excellence,  which  can  never  be  increased  by  its 
assuming  a  vindictive  and  sanguinary  aspect.  While  it  is  the  object 
of  the  people's  appiobation  it  will  be  continued,  and  to  support  it  much 
beyond  that  period  by  mere  force  and  terror  would  be  impossible  were 
it  just,  and  unjust  were  it  possible.  The  law  hath  amply  provided 
against  overt  acts  of  sedition  and  disorder,  and  to  suppress  mere 
opinions  by  any  other  method  than  reason  and  argument  is  the  height 
of  tyranny.  Freedom  of  thought,  being  intimately  connected  with  the 
happiness  and  dignity  of  man  in  every  stage  of  his  being,  is  of  so 
much  more  importance  than  the  preservation  of  any  constitution,  that 
to  infringe  the  former  under  pretence  of  supporting  the  latter  is  to 
sacrifice  the  means  to  the  end. 

3.  In  attempting  to  define  the  boundary  which  separates  the  liberty 
of  the  press  from  its  licentiousness,  these  societies  have  undertaken  a 
task  which  they  are  utterly  unable  to  execute.  The  line  that  divides 
them  is  too  nice  and  delicate  to  be  perceived  by  every  eye,  or  to  be 
drawn  by  every  rude  and  unskilful  hand.  When  a  public  outrage 
against  the  laws  is  committed,  the  crime  is  felt  in  a  moment ;  but  to 
ascertain  the  qualities  which  compose  a  libel,  and  to  apply  with  ex- 
actness the  general  idea  to  every  instance  and  example  which  may 
occur,  demand  an  effort  of  thought  and  reflection  little  likely  to  be 
exerted  by  the  great  mass  of  mankind.  Bewildered  in  a  pursuit  which 
they  are  incapable  of  conducting  with  propriety,  taught  to  suspect 
treason  and  sedition  in  every  page  they  read  and  in  every  conversa- 
tion they  hear,  the  necessary  eflect  of  such  an  employn\ent  must  be 
to  perplex  the  understanding  and  degrade  the  heart.     An  admirable 


58  ON  ASSOCIATIONS. 

expedient  for  transforming  a  great  and  generous  people  into  a  con- 
temptible race  of  spies  and  informers  ! 

For  private  individuals  to  combine  together  at  all  w^ith  a  view  to 
quicken  the  vigour  of  criminal  prosecution  is  suspicious  at  least,  if  not 
illegal ;  in  a  case  where  the  liberty  of  the  press  is  concerned,  all  such 
combinations  are  utterly  improper.  The  faults  and  the  excellences 
of  a  book  are  often  so  blended,  the  motives  of  a  writer  so  difficult  to 
ascertain,  and  the  mischiefs  of  servile  restraint  so  alarming,  that  the 
criminality  of  a  book  should  always  be  left  to  be  determined  by  the 
particular  circumstances  of  the  case.  As  one  would  rather  see  many 
criminals  escape  than  the  punishment  of  one  innocent  person,  so  it  is 
infinitely  better  a  multitude  of  errors  should  be  propagated  than  one 
truth  be  suppressed. 

If  tlie  suppression  of  Mr.  Paine's  pamphlet  be  the  object  of  these 
societies,  they  are  ridiculous  in  the  extreme  ;  for  the  circulation  of  his 
works  ceased  the  moment  they  were  declared  a  libel :  if  any  other 
publication  be  intended,  they  are  premature  and  impertinent,  in  pre- 
suming to  anticipate  the  decision  of  the  courts. 

4.  Admitting,  however,  the  principle  on  which  they  are  founded  to 
be  ever  so  just  and  proper,  they  are  highly  impolitic.  All  violence 
exerted  towards  opinions  which  falls  short  of  extermination  serves  no 
other  purpose  than  to  render  them  more  known,  and  ultimately  to  in- 
crease the  zeal  and  number  of  their  abetters.  Opinions  that  are  false 
may  be  dissipated  by  the  force  of  argument  ;  when  they  are  true  their 
punishment  draws  towards  them  infallibly  more  of  the  public  attention, 
and  enables  them  to  dwell  with  more  lasting  weight  and  pressure  on 
the  muid.  The  progress  of  reason  is  aided,  in  this  case,  by  the  pas- 
sions, and  finds  in  curiosity,  compassion,  and  resentment  powerful 
auxlHaries. 

When  public  discontents  are  allowed  to  vent  themselves  in  reason- 
ing and  discourse,  they  subside  into  a  calm ;  but  their  confinement  in 
the  bosom  is  apt  to  give  them  a  fierce  and  deadly  tincture.  The  reason 
of  this  is  obvious  :  as  men  are  seldom  disposed  to  complain  till  they  at 
least  imagine  themselves  injured,  so  there  is  no  injury  which  they  will 
remember  so  long,  or  resent  so  deeply,  as  that  of  being  threatened 
into  silence.  This  seems  like  adding  triumph  to  oppression,  and  insult 
to  injury.  The  apparent  tranquillity  which  may  ensue  is  delusive  and 
ominous ;  it  is  that  awful  stillness  which  nature  feels  while  she  is 
awaiting  the  discharge  of  the  gathered  tempest. 

Tlie  professed  object  of  these  associations  is  to  strengthen  the  hands 
of  government :  but  there  is  one  way  in  which  it  may  strengthen  its 
own  hands  most  effectually ;  recommended  by  a  very  venerable  au- 
thoritv,  though  one  from  whicli  it  hath  taken  but  few  lessons.  "  He 
that  hath  clean  hands"  saith  a  sage  adviser,  "  shall  grow  stronger  and 
stronger."  If  the  government  wishes  to  become  more  vigorous,  let 
it  first  become  more  pure,  lest  an  addition  to  its  strength  should  only 
increase  its  capacity  for  mischief. 

There  is  a  characteristic  feature  attending  these  associations,  which 
is  sufficient  to  acquaint  us  with  their  real  origin  and  spirit,  that  is  the 


ON  ASSOCIATIONS.  59 

silence,  almost  total,  which  they  maintain  respecting  political  abuses. 
Had  they  been  intended,  as  their  title  imports,  merely  to  furnish  an 
antidote  to  the  spread  of  republican  srhemes  and  doctrines,  they  would 
have  loudly  asserted  the  necessity  of  reform,  as  a  conciliatory  princi- 
ple, a  centre  of  union,  in  which  the  virtuous  of  all  descriptions  might 
have  concurred.  But  this,  however  conducive  to  the  good  of  the  people, 
would  have  defeated  their  whole  project,  which  consisted  in  avaihng 
themselves  of  an  alarm  which  they  had  artfully  prepared,  in  order  to 
withdraw  the  public  attention  from  real  giievances  to  imaginary  dangers. 
The  Hercules  of  reform  had  penetrated  the  Augean  stable  of  abuses  ; 
the  fabric  of  corruption,  hitherto  deemed  sacred,  began  to  totter,  and 
its  upholders  were  apprehensive  their  iniquity  was  almost  full.  In  this 
perplexity  they  embraced  an  occasion  aflbrded  them  by  the  spread  of 
certain  bold  speculations  (speculations  which  owed  their  success  to 
the  corruptions  of  government)  to  diffuse  a  panic,  and  to  drown  the 
justest  complaints  in  unmeaning  clamour.  The  plan  of  associating, 
thus  commencing  in  corruption,  and  propagated  by  imitation  and  by 
fear,  had  for  its  pretext  the  fear  of  republicanism ;  for  its  object  the 
perpetuity  of  abuses.  Associations  in  this  light  may  be  considered  as 
mirrors  placed  to  advantage  for  reflecting  the  finesses  and  tricks  of 
the  ministry.  At  present  they  are  playing  into  each  other's  hands, 
and  no  doubt  find  great  entertainment  in  deceiving  the  nation.  But  let 
them  be  aware  lest  it  should  be  found,  after  all,  none  are  so  much 
duped  as  themselves.  Wisdom  and  truth,  the  offspring  of  the  sky,  are 
immortal ;  but  cunning  and  deception,  the  meteors  of  the  earth,  after 
glittering  for  a  moment,  must  pass  away. 

The  candour  and  sincerity  of  these  associators  is  of  a  piece  with 
their  other  virtues  :  for  while  they  profess  to  be  combined  in  order  to 
prevent  riots  and  insurrections,  attempted  to  be  raised  by  republicans 
and  levellers,  they  can  neither  point  out  the  persons  to  whom  that 
description  applies,  nor  mention  a  single  riot  that  was  not  fomented  by 
their  principles,  and  engaged  on  their  side.  There  have  been  three 
riots  in  England  of  late  on  a  political  account ;  one  at  Birmingham, 
one  at  Manchester,  and  one  at  Cambridge ;  each  of  which  has  been 
levelled  against  dissenters  and  friends  of  reform.* 

The  Crown  and  Anchor  association,  as  it  was  first  in  order  of  time, 
seems  also  determined,  by  pushing  to  a  greater  length  the  maxims  of 
arbitrary  power,  to  maintain  its  pre-eminence  in  every  other  respect. 
The  divine  right  of  monarchy,  the  sacred  anointing  of  kings,  passive 
obedience  and  non-resistance,  are  the  hemlock  and  night  shade  which 
these  physicians  have  prescribed  for  the  health  of  the  nation  ;  and  are 
yet  but  a  specimen  of  a  more  fertile  crop  which  they  have  promised  out 
of  the  hotbed  of  their   depravity.      The  opinions   which   they  have 

*  The  conduct  of  an  honourable  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  respecting  the  last  of  these, 
was  extremely  illiberal.  He  informed  the  house,  that  the  riot  at  Cambridge  was  nothing  more 
than  that  the  mob  compelled  Mr.  Musgrave,  one  of  bis  constituents,  who  had  been  heard  to  speak 
seditious  words,  to  sing  God  save  the  King— a  statement  in  which  he  was  utterly  mistaken.  Mr. 
Musgrave,  with  whom  I  have  the  pleasure  of  being  well  acquainted,  was  neither  guilty  of  uttering 
s'editious  discourse,  nor  did  he,  1  am  certain,  comply  with  the  requisition.  His  whole  ciime  consists 
in  the  love  of  his  country,  and  a  zeal  tor  parliamentary  reform.  It  would  be  happy  for  this  nation, 
if  a  portion  only  of  the  integrity  and  disinterested  virtue  which  adorn  his  character  could  be  infUsed 
into  our  great  men. 


60  ON  ASSOCIATIONS. 

associated  to  suppress  are  contained,  they  tell  us,  in  the  terms  liberty 
and  equality ;  after  which  they  proceed  to  a  dull  harangue  on  the  mis- 
chiefs that  must  flow  from  equalizing  property.  All  mankind,  they 
gravely  tell  us,  are  not  equal  in  virtue,  as  if  that  were  not  sufficiently 
evident  from  the  existence  of  their  society.  The  notion  of  equality 
in  property  was  never  seriously  cherished  in  the  mind  of  any  man, 
unless  for  the  purpose  of  calumny :  and  the  term  transplanted  from  a 
neighbouring  country  never  intended  there  any  thing  more  than  equality 
of  rights — as  opposed  to  feudal  oppression  and  hereditary  distinctions. 
An  equality  of  rights  may  consist  with  the  greatest  inequality  between 
the  thing  to  which  those  rights  extend.  It  belongs  to  the  very  nature 
of  property  for  the  owner  to  have  a  full  and  complete  right  to  that 
which  he  possesses,  and  consequently  for  all  properties  to  have  equal 
rights  ;  but  who  is  so  ridiculous  as  to  infer  from  thence  that  the  posses- 
sions themselves  are  equal  ?  A  more  alarming  idea  cannot  be  spread 
among  the  people,  than  that  there  is  a  large  party  ready  to  abet  them 
in  any  enterprise  of  depredation  and  plunder.  As  all  men  do  not  know 
that  the  element  of  the  associators  is  calumny,  they  are  really  in  dan- 
ger for  a  while  of  being  believed,  and  must  thank  themselves  if  they 
should  realize  the  plan  of  equality  their  own  malice  has  invented. 

I  am  happy  to  lind  that  Mr.  Law,  a  very  respectable  gentleman, 
who  had  joined  the  Crown  and  Anchor  society,  has  publicly  withdrawn 
his  name,  disgusted  with  their  conduct ;  by  whom  we  are  informed 
they  receive  anonymous  letters,  vilifying  the  characters  of  persons 
of  the  first  eminence,  and  that  they  are  in  avowed  alliance  with  the 
ministry  for  prosecutions,  whom  they  entreat  to  order  the  solicitor- 
general  to  proceed  on  their  suggestions.  When  such  a  society  declares 
"  itself  to  be  unconnected  imth  any  political  party ^''  our  respect  for 
human  nature  impels  us  to  believe  it,  and  to  hope  their  appearance 
may  be  considered  as  an  era  in  the  annals  of  corruption  which  will 
transmit  their  names  to  posterity  with  the  encomiums  they  deserve. 
With  sycophants  so  base  and  venal,  no  argument  or  remonstrance  can 
be  expected  to  have  any  success.  It  is  in  vain  to  apply  to  reason  when 
it  is  perverted  and  abused,  to  shame  when  it  is  extinguished,  to  a  con- 
science which  has  ceased  to  admonish :  I  shall  therefore  leave  them 
in  the  undisturbed  possession  of  that  true  philosophical  indifference 
which  steels  them  against  the  reproaches  of  their  own  hearts  and  the 
contempt  of  all  honest  men. 

All  the  associations,  it  is  true,  do  not  breathe  the  spirit  which  dis- 
graces that  of  the  Crown  and  Anchor.  But  they  all  concur  in  estab- 
lishnig  a  political  test,  on  the  first  appearance  of  which  the  friends  of 
liberty  should  make  a  stand.  The  opinions  proposed  may  be  innocent ; 
but  the  precedent  is  fatal,  and  the  moment  subscription  becomes  the 
price  of  security,  the  Rubicon  is  passed.  Emboldened  by  the  success 
of  this  expedient,  its  authors  will  venture  on  more  vigorous  measures  ; 
test  will  steal  upon  test,  and  the  bounds  of  tolerated  opinion  will  be 
continually  narrowed,  till  we  awake  under  the  fangs  of  a  relentless 
despotism. 


ON  A  REFORM  OF  PARLIAMENT.  61 

SECTION  III. 

On  a  Reform  of  Parliament. 

Whatever  difference  of  opinion  may  take  place  in  points  of  less 
importance,  there  is  one  in  which  the  friends  of  freedom  are  entirely- 
agreed,  that  is,  the  necessity  of  reform  in  the  representation.  The 
theory  of  the  English  constitution  presents  three  independent  powers : 
the  king,  as  executive  head,  with  a  negative  in  the  legislature,  an 
hereditary  House  of  Peers,  and  an  assembly  of  Commons,  who  are  ap- 
pointed to  represent  the  nation  at  large.  From  this  enumeration  it  is 
plain  that  the  people  of  England  can  have  no  liberty,  that  is,  no  share 
in  forming  the  laws  but  what  they  exert  through  the  medium  of  the 
last  of  those  bodies  ;  nor  then,  but  in  proportion  to  its  independence  of 
the  other.  The  independence,  therefore,  of  the  House  of  Commons 
is  the  column  on  which  the  whole  fabric  of  our  liberty  rests.  Repre- 
sentation may  be  considered  as  complete  when  it  collects  to  a  sufficient 
extent  and  transmits  with  perfect  fidelity  the  real  sentiments  of  the 
people ;  but  this  it  may  fail  of  accomplishing  through  various  causes. 
If  its  electors  are  but  a  handful  of  people,  and  of  a  peculiar  order  and 
description ;  if  its  duration  is  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  imbibe  the  spirit 
of  a  corporation  ;  if  its  integrity  be  corrupted  by  treasury  influence,  or 
warped  by  the  prospect  of  places  and  pensions  ;  it  may  by  these  means 
not  only  fail  of  the  end  of  its  appointment,  but  fall  into  such  an  entire 
dependence  on  the  executive  branch  as  to  become  a  most  dangerous 
instrument  of  arbitrary  power.  The  usurpation  of  the  emperors  at 
Rome  would  not  have  been  safe  unless  it  had  concealed  itself  behind 
the  formalities  of  a  senate. 

The  confused  and  inadequate  state  of  our  representation  at  present 
is  too  obvious  to  escape  the  attention  of  the  most  careless  observer. 
While,  through  the  fluctuation  of  human  aflairs,  many  towns  of  ancient 
note  have  fallen  into  decay,  and  the  increase  of  commerce  has  raised 
obscure  hamlets  to  splendour  and  distinction,  the  state  of  representation 
standing  still  amid  these  vast  changes,  points  back  to  an  order  of  things 
which  no  longer  subsists.  The  opulent  towns  of  Birmingham,  Man- 
chester, and  Leeds  send  no  members  to  parliament ;  the  decayed 
boroughs  of  Cornwall  appoint  a  multitude  of  representatives.  Old 
Sarum  sends  two  members,  though  there  are  not  more  than  one  or  two 
families  that  reside  in  it.  The  disproportion  between  tliose  who  vote 
for  representatives  and  the  people  at  large  is  so  great,  that  the  majority 
of  our  House  of  Commons  is  chosen  by  less  than  eight  thousand  in  a 
kingdom  consisting  of  as  many  millions.  Mr.  Burgh,  in  his  excellent 
political  disquisitions,  has  made  a  very  laborious  calculation  on  this 
head,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  aflairs  of  this  great  empire  are 
decided  by  the  suffrages  of  between  five  and  six  thousand  electors  ;  so 
that  our  representation,  instead  of  being  co-extended  with  the  people, 
fails  of  this  in  a  proportion  that  is  truly  enormous.     The  qualifications, 


62  ON  A  REFORM 

moreover,  that  confer  the  right  of  election  are  capricious  and  irregular. 
In  some  places  it  belongs  to  the  corporation,  or  to  those  whom  they 
think  proper  to  make  free  ;  in  some  to  every  housekeeper  ;  in  others  it 
is  attached  to  a  particular  estate,  whose  proprietor  is  absolute  lord  of  the 
borough,  of  which  he  makes  his  advantage  by  representing  it  himself 
or  disposing  of  it  to  the  best  bidder.  In  counties  the  right  of  election 
is  annexed  only  to  one  kind  of  property,  that  of  freehold  ;  the  proprietor 
of  copyhold  land  being  entirely  deprived  of  it,  though  his  political 
situation  is  precisely  the  same. 

The  consequence  of  this  perplexity  in  the  qualifications  of  electors 
is  often  a  tedious  scrutiny  and  examination  before  a  committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  prolonged  to  such  a  length  that  there  is  no  time 
when  there  are  not  some  boroughs  entirely  unrepresented.  These 
gi-oss  defects  in  our  representation  have  struck  all  sensible  men  very 
forcibly ;  even  Mr.  Paley,  a  courtly  writer  in  the  main,  declares  the 
bulk  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  have  little  more  concern  in  the 
appointment  of  parliament  than  the  subjects  of  the  grand  seignior  at 
Constantinople. 

On  the  propriety  of  the  several  plans  which  have  been  proposed  to 
remedy  these  evils  it  is  not  for  me  to  decide ;  I  shall  choose  rather  to 
point  out  two  general  principles  which  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  per- 
vade every  plan  of  parliamentary  reform ;  the  first  of  which  respects 
the  mode  of  election,  the  second  the  independence  of  the  elected.  In 
order  to  give  the  people  a  true  representation,  let  its  basis  be  enlarged 
and  the  duration  of  parliaments  shortened.  The  first  of  these  im- 
provements would  dimmish  bribery  and  corruption,  lessen  the  violence 
and  tumult  of  elections,  and  secure  to  the  people  a  real  and  unequivocal 
organ  for  the  expression  of  their  sentiments. 

Were  every  householder  in  town  and  country  permitted  to  vote, 
the  number  of  electors  would  be  so  great,  that  as  no  art  or  industry 
would  be  able  to  bias  their  minds,  so  no  sums  of  money  would  be 
sufficient  to  win  their  suffrages.  The  plan  which  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond recommended  was,  if  I  mistake  not,  still  more  comprehensive, 
including  all  that  were  of  age,  except  menial  servants.  By  this  means, 
the  different  passions  and  prejudices  of  men  \vould  check  each  other, 
the  predominance  of  any  particular  or  local  interest  be  kept  down, 
and  from  the  whole  there  would  result  that  general  impression,  which 
would  convey  with  precision  the  unbiassed  sense  of  the  people. 

But  besides  this,  another  great  improvement,  in  my  opinion,  would 
be,  to  shorten  the  duration  of  parliament,  by  bringing  it  back  to  one 
year.  The  Michel  Gemote,  or  great  council  of  the  kingdom,  was  ap- 
pointed to  meet  under  Alfred  twice  a  year,  and  by  divers  ancient 
statutes  after  the  conquest,  the  king  was  bound  to  summon  a  parlia- 
ment every  year  or  oftener,  if  need  be  ;  when,  to  remedy  the  looseness 
of  this  latter  phrase,  by  the  16th  of  Charles  the  Second  it  was  enacted, 
the  holding  of  parliaments  should  not  be  intermitted  above  three  years 
at  most;  and  in  the  1st  of  King  William,  it  is  declared  as  one  of  the 
rights  of  the  people,  that  for  redress  of  all  grievances,  and  preserving 
tlie  laws,  parliaments  ought  to  be  held  frequently ;  which  was  again 


OF  PARLIAMENT.  63 

reduced  to  a  certainty  by  another  statute,  which  enacts  that  a  new 
parliament  shall  be  called  within  three  years  after  the  termination  of 
the  former.  To  this  term  did  they  continue  limited  till  the  reign  of 
George  the  First ;  when,  after  the  rebellion  of  1715,  the  septennial  act 
was  passed,  under  the  pretence  of  diminishing  the  expense  of  elec- 
tions, and  preserving  the  kingdom  against  the  designs  of  the  pretender. 
A  noble  lord*  observed,  on  that  occasion,  he  was  at  an  utter  loss  to 
describe  the  nature  of  this  prolonged  parliament,  unless  he  were  allowed 
to  borrow  a  phrase  from  the  Athanasian  Creed ;  for  it  was,  "  neither 
created,  nor  begotten,  but  proceeding."  Without  disputing  the  upright 
intentions  of  the  authors  of  this  act,  it  is  plain  they  might  on  the  same 
principle  have  voted  themselves  perpetual,  and  their  conduct  will  ever 
remain  a  monument  of  that  short-sightedness  in  politics  which  in  pro- 
viding for  the  pressure  of  the  moment  puts  to  hazard  the  liberty  and 
happiness  of  future  times.  It  is  intolerable,  that  in  so  large  a  space 
of  a  man's  life  as  seven  years  he  should  never  be  able  to  correct  the 
error  he  may  have  committed  in  the  choice  of  a  representative,  but  be 
compelled  to  see  him  every  year  dipping  deeper  into  corruption ;  a 
helpless  spectator  of  the  contempt  of  his  interests  and  the  ruin  of  his 
country.  During  the  present  period  of  parliaments  a  nation  may 
sustain  the  greatest  possible  changes  ;  may  descend  by  a  succession 
of  ill  counsels  from  the  highest  pinnacle  of  its  fortunes  to  the  lowest 
point  of  depression ;  its  treasure  exhausted,  its  credit  sunk,  and  its 
weight  almost  completely  amiihilated  in  the  scale  of  empire.  Ruin 
and  felicity  are  seldom  dispensed  by  the  same  hand,  nor  is  it  likely 
any  succour  m  calamity  should  flow  from  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of 
those  by  whose  folly  and  wickedness  it  was  inflicted. 

The  union  between  a  representative  and  his  constituents  ought  to 
be  strict  and  entire ;  but  the  septennial  act  has  rendered  it  little  more 
than  nominal.  The  duration  of  parliament  sets  its  members  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  people,  begets  a  notion  of  independence,  and  gives  the 
minister  so  much  leisure  to  insinuate  himself  into  their  graces,  that 
before  the  period  is  expired  they  become  very  mild  and  complying. 
Sir  Robert  Walpole  used  to  say,  that  "  every  man  had  his  price :"  a 
maxim  on  which  he  relied  with  so  much  security,  that  he  declared  he 
seldom  troubled  himself  with  the  election  of  members,  but  rather 
chose  to  stay  and  buy  them  up  when  they  came  to  market.  A  very 
interesting  work,  lately  published,  entitled,  "  Anecdotes  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham," unfolds  some  parts  of  this  mystery  of  iniquity,  which  the 
reader  will  probably  think  equally  new  and  surprising,  There  is  a 
regular  ofiiee,  it  seems, — that  of  manager  of  the  House  of  Commons, — • 
which  generally  devolves  on  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state,  and  con- 
sists in  securing,  at  all  events,  a  majority  in  parliament  by  a  judicious 
application  of  promises  and  bribes.  The  sums  disbursed  by  this 
honourable  office  are  involved  under  the  head  of  Secret  Service  Money ; 
and  so  delicate  is  this  employment  of  manager  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons considered,  that  we  have  an  account  in  the  above-mentioned 

*  The  Earl  of  Peterborough. 


64  ON  A  REFORM 

treatise  of  a  new  arrangement  of  ministry,  which  failed  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  the  different  parties  could  not  agree  on  the  proper 
person  to  fill  it.* 

This  secret  influence  which  prevails  must  be  allowed  to  be  ex- 
tremely disgraceful ;  nor  can  it  ever  be  effectually  remedied  but  by 
contracting  the  duration  of  parliaments. 

If  it  be  objected  to  annual  parliaments  that  by  this  means  the 
tumult  and  riot  attendant  on  elections  will  be  oftener  repeated,  it 
ought  to  be  remembered  that  their  duration  is  the  chief  source  of 
these  disorders.  Render  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  of  less 
value,  and  you  diminish  at  once  the  violence  of  the  struggle.  In 
America,  the  election  of  representatives  takes  place  throughout  that 
vast  continent  in  one  day,  with  the  greatest  tranquillity. 

In  a  mixed  constitution  like  ours  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the 
importance  of  an  independent  parliament ;  for  as  it  is  here  our  freedom 
consists,  if  this  barrier  to  the  encroachments  of  arbitrary  power  once 
fails,  we  can  oppose  no  other.  Should  the  king  attempt  to  govern 
Avithout  a  parliament,  or  should  the  upper  house  pretend  to  legislate 
independently  of  the  lower,  we  should  immediately  take  the  alarm ; 
but  if  the  House  of  Commons  falls  insensibly  under  the  control  of  the 
other  two  branches  of  the  legislature,  ovir  danger  is  greater,  because 
our  apprehensions  are  less.  The  forms  of  a  free  constitution  s\n-viving 
when  its  spirit  is  extinct  would  perpetuate  slavery  by  rendering  it 
more  concealed  and  secure.  On  this  account,  I  apprehend,  did  Mon- 
tesquieu predict  the  loss  of  our  freedom,  from  the  legislative  power 
becoming  more  corrupt  than  the  executive  ;  a  crisis  to  which,  if  it  has 
not  arrived  already,  it  is  hastening  apace.  The  immortal  Locke,  far 
from  looking  with  the  indifference  too  common  on  the  abuses  in  our 
representation,  considered  all  improper  influence  exerted  in  that  quarter 
as  threatening  the  very  dissolution  of  government.  "  Thus,''''  says  he, 
"  to  regulate  candidates  and  electors,  and  new-model  the  ways  of  election, 
what  is  it  but  to  cut  up  the  government  hy  the  roots,  and  poison  the 
tiery  fountain  of  jmblic  security  ?" 

No  enormity  can  subsist  long  without  meeting  with  advocates  ;  on 
which  account  we  need  not  wonder  that  the  corruption  of  parliament 
has  been  justified  under  the  mild  denomination  of  influence,  though  it 
must  pain  every  virtuous  mind  to  see  the  enlightened  Paley  engaged 
in  its  defence.  If  a  member  votes  consistently  with  his  convictions, 
his  conduct  in  that  instance  has  not  been  determined  by  influence ; 
but  if  he  votes  otherwise,  give  it  what  gentle  name  you  please,  he 
forfeits  his  integrity ;  nor  is  it  possible  to  mark  the  boundaries  which 
should  limit  his  compliance ;  for  if  he  may  deviate  a  little  to  attain 

*  As  I  have  'taken  my  information  on  this  head  entirely  on  the  authority  of  the  work  called 
"  Anecdotes  of  Lord  Chatham,"  the  reader  may  not  be  displeased  with  tlie  following  extract,  vol.  ii. 
page  121 : — "The  management  of  the  House  of  Commons,  as  it  is  called,  is  a  confidential  depart- 
ment unknown  to  the  constitution.  In  the  public  accounts  it  is  immersed  under  the  head  of  Secret 
Service  Money.  It  is  usually  given  to  the  secretary  of  state  when  that  post  is  filled  by  a  commoner. 
Tlie  business  of  the  department  is  to  distribute  with  art  and  policy  among  the  members  who 
have  no  ostensible  places  sums  of  money  for  tlieir  support  during  the  session  ;  besides  contracts, 
loiterj-tickets,  and  other  douceurs.  It  is  no  uncommon  circumstance,  at  the  end  of  a  session,  for  a 
gentleman  to  receive  tive  hundred  or  a  thousand  pounds  for  his  services." 


OF  PARLIAMENT.  Q^ 

the  see  of  Winchester,  he  may  certainly  step  a  little  farther  to  reach 
the  dignity  of  primate.  How  familiar  must  the  practice  of  corruption 
have  become  when  a  philosopliical  moralist,  a  minister  of  religion,  of 
great  talents  and  virtue,  in  the  calm  retirement  of  his  study,  does  not 
hesitate  to  become  its  public  apologist ! 

The  necessity  of  a  reform  in  the  constitution  of  parliament  is  in 
nothing  more  obvious  than  in  the  ascendency  of  the  aristocracy.  This 
colossus  bestrides  both  houses  of  parliament ;  legislates  in  one,  and 
exerts  a  domineering  influence  over  the  other.  It  is  humiliating,  at 
the  approach  of  an  election,  to  see  a  whole  county  send  a  deputation 
to  an  earl  or  duke,  and  beg  a  representative  as  you  would  beg  an 
alms.  A  multitude  of  laws  have  been  framed,  it  is  true,  to  prevent  all 
interference  of  peers  in  elections ;  but  they  neither  are  nor  can  be 
effectual  while  the  House  of  Commons  opens  its  doors  to  their  sons 
and  brothers.  If  our  liberty  depends  on  the  balance  and  control  of 
the  respective  orders  in  the  state,  it  must  be  extremely  absurd  to  blend 
them  together  by  placing  the  father  in  one  department  of  the  legisla- 
ture and  his  family  in  the  other. 

Freedom  is  supposed  by  some  to  derive  great  security  from  the 
existence  of  a  regular  opposition  ;  an  expedient  which  is  in  my  opinion 
both  the  offspring  and  the  cherisher  of  faction.  That  a  minister 
should  be  opposed  when  his  measures  are  destructive  to  his  country 
can  admit  of  no  doubt ;  that  a  systematic  opposition  should  be  main- 
tained against  any  man  merely  as  a  minister,  without  regard  to  the 
principles  he  may  profess,  or  the  measures  he  may  propose,  which  is 
intended  by  a  regular  opposition,  appears  to  me  a  most  corrupt  and 
unprincipled  maxim.  When  a  legislative  assembly  is  thus  thrown  into 
parties,  distinguished  by  no  leading  principle,  however  warm  and  ani- 
mated their  debates,  it  is  plain  they  display  only  a  struggle  for  the 
emoluments  of  office.  This  the  people  discern,  and  in  consequence 
listen  with  very  little  attention  to  the  representations  of  the  minister 
on  the  one  hand,  or  the  minority  on  the  other ;  being  persuaded  the 
only  real  difference  between  them  is,  that  the  one  is  anxious  to  gain 
what  the  other  is  anxious  to  keep.  If  a  measure  be  good,  it  is  of  no 
importance  to  the  nation  from  whom  it  proceeds  ;  yet  will  it  be  esteemed 
by  the  opposition  a  point  of  honour  not  to  let  it  pass  without  throwing 
every  obstruction  in  its  way.  If  we  listen  to  the  minister  for  the  time 
being,  the  nation  is  always  flourishing  and  happy ;  if  we  hearken  to 
the  opposition,  it  is  a  chance  if  it  be  not  on  the  brink  of  destruction. 
In  an  assembly  convened  to  deliberate  on  the  affairs  of  a  nation,  how 
disgusting  to  hear  the  members  perpetually  talk  of  their  connexions, 
and  their  resolution  to  act  with  a  particular  set  of  men,  when,  if  they 
have  happened  by  chance  to  vote  according  to  their  convictions  rather 
than  their  party,  half  their  speeches  are  made  up  of  apologies  for  a 
conduct  so  new  and  unexpected  !  When  thej^  see  men  united  who 
agree  in  nothing  but  their  hostility  to  the  minister,  the  people  fall  at 
first  into  amazement  and  irresolution ;  till  perceiving  political  debate 
is  a  mere  scramble  for  profit  and  power,  they  endeavour  to  become  as 
corrupt  as  their  betters.  It  is  not  in  that  roar  of  faction  which  deafens 
Vol.  II.— E 


66  ON  A  REFORM 

the  ear  and  sickens  the  heart  the  still  voice  of  Liberty  is  heard.  She 
turns  from  the  disgusting  scene,  and  regards  these  struggles  as  the 
pangs  and  convulsions  in  which  she  is  doomed  to  expire. 

The  era  of  parties,  flowing  from  the  animation  of  freedom,  is  ever 
followed  by  an  era  of  faction,  which  marks  its  feebleness  and  decay. 
Parties  are  founded  on  principle,  factions  on  7nen ;  under  the  first,  the 
people  are  contending  respecting  the  system  that  shall  be  pursued ; 
under  the  second,  they  are  candidates  for  servitude,  and  are  only  de- 
bating ivhose  livery  they  shall  wear.  The  purest  times  of  the  Roman 
republic  were  distinguished  by  violent  dissensions  ;  but  they  consisted 
in  the  jealousy  of  the  several  orders  of  the  state  among  each  other ; 
on  the  ascendence  of  the  patricians  on  the  one  side  and  the  plebeians 
on  the  other ;  a  useful  struggle,  which  maintained  the  balance  and 
equipoise  of  the  constitution.  In  the  progress  of  corruption  things 
took  a  turn ;  the  permanent  parties  which  sprang  from  the  fixed  prin- 
ciples of  government  were  lost,  and  the  citizens  arranged  themselves 
under  the  standard  of  particular  leaders,  being  bandied  into  factions, 
under  Marius  or  Sylla,  Ca?sar  or  Pompey ;  while  the  republic  stood 
by  without  any  interest  in  the  dispute,  a  passive  and  helpless  victim. 
The  crisis  of  the  fall  of  freedom  in  difterent  nations,  with  respect  to 
the  causes  that  produce  it,  is  extremely  uniform.  After  the  manner 
of  the  ancient  factions,  we  hear  much  in  England  of  the  Bedford  party, 
the  Rockingham  party,  the  Portland  party, — when  it  would  puzzle  the 
wisest  man  to  point  out  their  political  distinction.  The  useful  jealousy 
of  the  separate  orders  is  extinct,  being  all  melted  down  and  blended 
into  one  mass  of  corruption.  The  House  of  Commons  looks  with  no 
jealousy  on  the  House  of  Lords,  nor  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  House 
of  Commons ;  the  struggle  in  both  is  maintained  by  the  ambition  of 
powerful  individuals  and  families,  between  whom  the  kingdom  is  thrown 
as  the  prize,  and  the  moment  they  unite  they  perpetuate  its  subjection 
and  divide  its  spoils. 

From  a  late  instance  we  see  they  quarrel  only  about  the  partition 
of  the  prey,  but  are  unanimous  in  defending  it.  To  the  honour  of  Mr. 
Fox  and  the  band  of  illustrious  patriots  of  which  he  is  the  leader,  it 
will  however  be  remembered  that  they  stood  firm  against  a  host  of 
opponents  when,  assailed  by  every  species  of  calumny  and  invective, 
they  had  nothing  to  expect  but  the  reproaches  of  the  present  and  the 
admiration  of  all  future  times.  If  any  thing  can  rekindle  the  sparks  of 
freedom,  it  will  be  the  flame  of  their  eloquence ;  if  any  thing  can  re- 
animate her  faded  fonn,  it  will  be  the  vigour  of  such  minds. 

The  disordered  state  of  our  representation,  it  is  acknowledged  on  all 
hands,  must  be  remedied  some  time  or  other ;  but  it  is  contended  that 
it  would  be  improper  at  present,  on  account  of  the  political  ferment 
that  occupies  the  minds  of  men  and  the  progress  of  republican  princi- 
ples ;  a  plausible  objection,  if  delay  can  restore  public  tranquillity : 
but  unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  it  will  have  just  a  contrary  effect. 
It  is  hard  to  conceive  how  the  discontent  that  flows  from  the  abuses  of 
government  can  be  allayed  by  their  being  perpetuated.  If  they  are  of 
such  a  nature  that  they  can  neither  be  palliated  nor  denied,  and  are 


OF  PARLIAMENT.  fi7 

made  the  ground  of  invective  against  the  whole  of  our  constitution,  are 
not  they  its  best  friends  who  wish  to  cut  off  this  occasion  of  scandal 
and  complaint  ?  The  theory  of  our  constitution,  we  say,  and  justly, 
has  been  the  admiration  of  the  world ;  the  cavils  of  its  enemies,  then, 
derive  their  force  entirely  from  the  disagreement  between  that  theory 
and  its  practice  :  nothing  therefore  remains  but  to  bring  them  as  near 
as  human  affairs  will  admit  to  a  perfect  correspondence.  This  will 
cut  up  faction  by  the  roots,  and  immediately  distinguish  those  who 
wish  to  reform  the  constitution  from  those  who  wish  its  subversion. 
Since  the  aV)uses  are  real,  the  longer  they  are  continued  the  more  they 
will  be  known ;  the  discontented  will  be  always  gaining  ground,  and, 
though  repulsed,  will  return  to  the  charge  with  redoubled  vigour  and 
advantage.  Let  reform  be  considered  as  a  chirurgical  operation,  if  you 
please ;  but  since  the  constitution  must  undergo  it  or  die,  it  is  best  to 
submit  before  the  remedy  becomes  as  dangerous  as  the  disease.  The 
example  drawn  from  a  neighbouring  kingdom  as  an  argument  for  delay 
ought  to  teach  us  a  contrary  lesson.  Had  the  encroachments  of  arbi- 
trary power  been  steadily  resisted,  and  remedies  been  applied  as  evils 
appeared,  instead  of  piling  them  up  as  precedents,  the  disorders  of 
government  could  never  have  arisen  to  that  enormous  height,  nor  would 
the  people  have  been  impelled  to  the  dire  necessity  of  building  the 
W'hole  fabric  of  political  society  afresh.  It  seems  an  infatuation  in 
governments  that  in  tranquil  times  they  treat  the  people  with  contempt, 
and  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  their  complaints  ;  till,  public  resentment  kindhng, 
they  find  when  it  is  too  late  that  in  their  eagerness  to  retain  every 
thing  they  have  lost  all. 

The  pretences  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  his  friends  for  delaying  this  great 
business  are  so  utterly  inconsistent  that  it  is  too  plain  they  are  averse 
in  reality  to  its  ever  taking  place.  "When  Mr.  Pitt  is  reminded  that  he 
himself  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  recommended  parliamentary 
reform,  he  replies,  It  was  necessary  then  on  account  of  the  calamitous 
state  of  the  nation,  just  emerged  from  an  misuccessful  war  and  filled 
with  gloom  and  disquiet.  But,  unless  the  people  are  libelled,  they  now 
are  still  more  discontented, — wiih  this  difference,  that  their  uneasiness 
formerly  arose  from  events  but  remotely  connected  with  unequal  repre- 
sentation, but  that  this  is  now  the  chief  ground  of  complauit.  It  is 
absurd,  however,  to  rest  the  propriety  of  reform  on  any  turn  of  public 
affairs.  If  it  be  not  requisite  to  secure  our  freedom,  it  is  vain  and  use- 
less ;  but  if  it  be  a  proper  means  of  preserving  that  blessing,  the  nation 
will  need  it  as  much  in  peace  as  in  war.  When  we  wish  to  retain 
those  hal)its  which  we  know  it  were  best  to  relinquish,  we  are  ex- 
tremely ready  to  be  soothed  with  momentary  pretences  for  delay, 
though  they  appear  on  reflection  to  be  drawn  from  quite  opposite  topics, 
and  therefore  to  be  equally  applicable  to  all  times  and  seasons. 

A  similar  delusion  is  practised  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  If 
the  people  be  tranquil  and  composed,  and  have  not  caught  the  passion 
of  reform,  it  is  impolitic,  say  the  ministry,  to  disturb  their  minds  by 
agitating  a  question  that  lies  at  rest ;  if  they  are  awakened,  and  touched 
with  a  conviction  of  the  abuse,  we  must  wait,  say  they,  till  the  ferment 

E2 


68  ON  THEORIES,  ANU 

subsides,  and  not  lessen  our  dignity  by  seeming  to  yield  to  popular 
clamour :  if  we  are  at  peace,  and  commerce  flourishes,  it  is  concluded 
we  cannot  need  any  improvement  in  circumstances  so  prosperous  and 
happy ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  at  war,  and  our  affairs  unfortu- 
nate, an  amendment  in  the  representation  is  dreaded,  as  it  would  seem 
an  acknowledgment  that  our  calamities  flowed  from  the  ill  conduct 
of  parliament.  Now,  as  the  nation  must  always  be  in  one  or  other 
of  these  situations,  the  conclusion  is,  the  period  of  reform  can  never 
arrive  at  all. 

This  pretence  for  delay  will  appear  the  more  extraordinary  in  the 
British  ministry  from  a  comparison  of  the  exploits  they  have  performed 
with  the  task  they  decline.  They  have  found  time  for  involving  us  in 
millions  of  debt — for  cementing  a  system  of  ^corruption  that  reaches 
from  the  cabinet  to  the  cottage — for  carrying  havoc  and  devastation  to 
the  remotest  extremities  of  the  globe — for  accumulating  taxes  which 
famish  the  peasant  and  reward  the  parasite — for  bandying  the  whole 
kingdom  into  factions,  to  the  ruin  of  all  virtue  and  public  spirit — for 
the  completion  of  these  achievements  they  have  suffered  no  opportunity 
to  escape  them.  Elementary  treatises  on  time  mention  various  ar- 
rangements and  divisions,  but  none  have  ever  touched  on  the  chronology 
of  statesmen.  These  are  a  generation  who  measure  their  time  not 
so  much  by  the  revolutions  of  the  sun  as  by  the  revolutions  of  power. 
There  are  two  eras  particularly  marked  in  their  calendar, — the  one  the 
period  they  are  in  the  ministry,  and  the  other  when  they  are  out, — which 
l\?Lve  a  very  different  effect  on  their  sentiments  and  reasoning.  Their 
course  commences  in  the  character  of  friends  to  the  people,  whose 
grievances  they  display  in  all  the  colours  of  variegated  diction.  But 
the  moment  they  step  over  the  threshold  of  St.  James's,  they  behold 
every  thing  in  a  new  light ;  the  taxes  seem  lessened,  the  people  rise 
from  their  depression,  the  nation  flourishes  in  peace  and  plenty,  and 
every  attempt  at  improvement  is  like  heightening  the  beauties  of  Para- 
dise or  mending  the  air  of  Elysium. 


SECTION  IV. 

On  Theories,  and  the  Rights  of  Man. 

Among  the  many  alarming  symptoms  of  the  present  time,  it  is  not 
the  least  that  there  is  a  prevailing  disposition  to  hold  in  contempt  the 
theory  of  liberty  as  false  and  visionary.  For  my  own  part,  it  is  my 
determination  never  to  be  deterred  by  an  obnoxious  name  from  an  open 
avovval  of  any  principles  that  appear  useful  and  important.  Were  the 
ridicule  now  cast  on  the  Rights  of  Man  confined  to  a  mere  phrase,  as 
the  title  of  a  book,  it  were  of  little  consequence ;  but  when  that  is 
made  the  pretence  for  deriding  the  doctrine  itself,  it  is  matter  of  se- 
rious alarm. 

To  place  the  rights  of  man  as  the  basis  of  lawful  government  is  not 
peculiar  to  Mr.  Paine ;  but  was  done  more  than  a  century  ago  by  men 


THE  RIGHtfe  OF  MAN.  gg 

of  no  less  eminence  than  Sidney  and  Locke.  It  is  therefore  extremely- 
disingenuous  to  impute  the  system  to  Mr.  Paine  as  its  author.  His 
structure  may  be  fiilse  and  erroneous,  but  the  foundation  was  laid  by 
other  hands.  That  there  are  natural  rights,  or,  in  other  words,  a  cer- 
tain liberty  which  men  may  exercise,  independent  of  permission  from 
society,  can  scarcely  be  doubted  by  those  who  comprehend  the  mean- 
ing of  the  terms.  Every  man  must  have  a  natural  right  to  use  his  limbs 
in  what  manner  he  pleases  tliat  is  not  injurious  to  another.  In  like 
manner  he  must  have  a  right  to  worship  God  after  the  mode  he  thinks 
acceptable  ;  or,  in  other  words,  he  ought  not  to  be  compelled  to  consult 
any  thing  but  his  own  conscience.  These  are  a  specimen  of  those 
rights  wliich  may  properly  be  termed  natural;  for,  as  philosophers 
speak  of  the  primary  qualities  of  matter,  they  cannot  be  increased  or 
diminished.  We  cannot  conceive  the  right  of  using  our  limbs  to  be 
created  by  society,  or  to  be  rendered  more  complete  by  any  human 
agreement  or  compact. 

But  there  still  remains  a  question  whether  this  natural  liberty  must 
not  be  considered  as  entirely  relinquished  when  we  become  members 
of  society.  It  is  pretended  that  the  moment  we  quit  a  state  of  nature, 
as  we  have  given  up  the  control  of  our  actions  in  return  for  the  superior 
advantages  of  law  and  government,  we  can  never  appeal  again  to  any 
original  principles,  but  must  rest  content  with  the  advantages  that  are 
secured  by  the  terms  of  the  society.  These  are  the  views  which  dis- 
tinguish the  political  writings  of  Mr.  Burke,  an  author  whose  splendid 
and  unequalled  powers  have  given  a  vogue  and  fashion  to  certain  tenets 
which,  from  any  other  pen,  would  have  appeared  abject  and  contempti- 
ble. In  the  field  of  reason  the  encounter  would  not  be  difficult,  but 
who  can  withstand  the  fascination  and  magic  of  his  eloquence  ?  The 
excursions  of  his  genius  are  immense.  His  imperial  fancy  has  laid  all 
nature  under  tribute,  and  has  collected  riches  from  every  scene  of  the 
creation  and  every  walk  of  art.  His  eulogiura  on  the  Queen  of  France 
is  a  masterpiece  of  pathetic  composition ;  so  select  are  its  images,  so 
fraught  with  tenderness,  and  so  rich  with  colours  "  dipped  in  heaven," 
that  he  who  can  read  it  without  raptiu-e  may  have  merit  as  a  reasoner, 
but  must  resign  all  pretensions  to  taste  and  sensibility.  His  imagination 
is,  in  truth,  only  too  prolific :  a  world  of  itself,  where  he  dwells  in  the 
midst  of  chimerical  alarms,  is  the  dupe  of  his  own  enchantments,  and 
starts,  like  Prospero,  at  the  spectres  of  his  own  creation. 

His  intellectual  views  in  general,  however,  are  wide  and  variegated, 
rather  than  distinct ;  and  the  light  he  has  let  in  on  the  British  consti- 
tution in  particular  resembles  the  coloured  effulgence  of  a  painted 
medium,  a  kind  of  mimic  twilight,  solemn  and  soothing  to  the  senses, 
but  better  fitted  for  ornament  than  use. 

A  book  has  lately  been  published  under  the  title  of  "  Happiness  and 
Rights,"  written  by  Mr.  Hey,  a  respectable  member  of  the  university 
of  Cambridge,  whose  professed  object  is,  with  Mr.  Burke,  to  overturn 
the  doctrine  of  natural  rights.  The  few  remarks  I  may  make  upon  it 
are  less  on  account  of  any  merit  in  the  work  itself  than  on  account  of  its 
author,  who,  being  a  member  of  considerable  standing  in  the  most  liberal 


70  ON  THEORIES,  AND 

of  our  universities,  may  be  presumed  to  speak  the  sentiments  of  that 
learned  body.  The  chief  difference  between  his  theory  and  Mr. 
Burke's  seems  to  be  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  any  rights  that  can 
be  denominated  natural,  which  Mr.  Burke  only  supposes  resigned  on 
the  formation  of  political  society.  "  The  rights"  says  Mr.  Hey,  "/ 
can  conjecture  [for  it  is  but  a  conjecture)  to  belong  to  me  as  a  mere  man 
are  so  uncertain  and  comparatiiiely  so  unimportant,  while  the  rights  I 
feel  myself  possessed  of  in  civil  society  are  so  great,  so  numerous,  and 
many  of  them  so  well  defined,  that  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  consider 
society  as  creating  or  giving  my  rights,  rather  than  recognising  and 
securing  what  I  could  have  claimed  if  I  had  lived  in  an  unconnected 
state:'— {^.  137.) 

As  government  implies  restraint,  it  is  plain  a  portion  of  our  freedom 
is  given  up  by  entering  into  it ;  the  only  question  can  then  be,  how  far 
this  resignation  extends,  whether  to  a  part,  or  to  the  whole  ?  This 
point  may  perhaps  be  determined  by  the  following  reflections  : — 

1.  The  advantages  that  civil  power  can  procure  to  a  community  are 
partial.  A  small  part  in  comparison  with  the  condition  of  man  can 
fall  within  its  influence.  Allowing  it  to  be  a  rational  institution,  it 
must  have  that  end  in  view  which  a  reasonable  man  would  propose  by 
appointing  it ;  nor  can  it  imply  any  greater  sacrifice  than  is  strictly 
necessary  to  its  attainment.  But  on  what  account  is  it  requisite  to 
unite  in  political  society  ?  Plainly  to  guard  against  the  injury  of  others ; 
for  were  there  no  injustice  among  mankind  no  protection  would  be 
needed,  no  public  force  necessary :  every  man  might  be  left  without 
restraint  or  control.  The  attainment  of  all  possible  good,  then,  is  not 
the  purpose  of  laws,  but  to  secure  us  from  external  injury  and  violence  ; 
and  as  the  means  must  be  proportioned  to  the  end,  it  is  absurd  to  sup- 
pose that  by  submitting  to  civil  power,  with  a  view  to  some  particular 
benefits,  we  should  be  understood  to  hold  all  our  advantages  dependent 
upon  that  authority.  Civil  restraints  imply  nothing  more  than  a  sur- 
render of  our  liberty  in  some  points  in  order  to  maintain  it  undisturbed 
in  others  of  more  importance.  Thus  we  give  up  the  liberty  by  re- 
pelling force  by  force,  in  return  for  a  more  equal  administration  of 
justice  than  private  resentment  would  permit.  But  there  are  some 
rights  which  cannot  with  any  propriety  be  yielded  up  to  human  au- 
thority, because  they  are  perfectly  consistent  with  every  benefit  its 
appointment  can  procure.  The  free  use  of  our  faculties  in  distin- 
guishing truth  from  falsehood,  the  exertion  of  corporeal  powers  without 
injury  to  others,  the  choice  of  a  religion  and  worship,  are  branches 
of  natural  freedom  which  no  government  can  justly  alter  or  diminish, 
because  their  restraint  cannot  conduce  to  that  security  which  is  its 
proper  object.  Government,  like  every  other  contrivance,  has  a  specif  c 
end ;  it  implies  the  resignation  of  just  as  much  liberty  as  is  needful  to 
attain  it;  whatever  is  demanded  more  is  superfluous,  a  species  of 
tyranny,  which  ought  to  be  corrected  by  withdrawing  it.  The  relation 
of  master  and  servant,  of  pupil  and  instructer,  of  the  respective  mem- 
bers of  a  family  to  their  head,  all  include  some  restraint,  some  abridg- 
ment of  natural  liberty.     But  in  these  cases  it  is  not  pretended  that 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN.  71 

the  surrender  is  total ;  and  why  should  this  be  supposed  to  take  place 
in  political  society,  which  is  one  of  the  relations  of  human  life  ?  this 
would  be  to  render  the  foundation  inlinitely  broader  than  the  super- 
structure. 

2.  From  the  notion  that  political  society  precludes  an  appeal  to 
natural  rights,  the  greatest  absurdities  must  ensue.  If  that  idea  be 
just,  it  is  improper  to  say  of  any  administration  that  it  is  despotic  or 
oppressive  unless  it  has  receded  from  its  first  form  and  model.  Civil 
power  can  never  exceed  its  limits  until  it  deviates  into  a  new  track. 
For  if  every  portion  of  natural  freedom  be  given  up  by  yielding  to  civil 
authority,  we  can  never  claim  any  other  liberties  tlian  those  precise 
ones  which  were  ascertained  in  its  first  formation.  The  vassals  of 
despotism  may  complain  perhaps  of  the  hardships  which  they  suffer ; 
but  unless  it  appear  they  are  of  a  new  kind  no  injury  is  done  them,  for 
no  right  is  violated.  Rights  are  either  natural  or  artificial ;  the  first 
cannot  be  pleaded  after  they  are  relinquished,  and  the  second  cannot 
be  impaired  but  by  a  departure  from  ancient  precedents.  If  a  man 
should  be  unfortunate  enough  to  live  under  the  dominion  of  a  prince 
who,  like  the  nionarchs  of  Persia,  could  murder  his  subjects  at  will, 
he  may  be  unhappy,  but  cannot  complain  ;  for  on  Mr.  Hey's  theory  he 
never  had  any  rights  but  what  were  created  by  society,  and  on  Mr. 
Burke's  he  has  for  ever  relinquished  them.  The  claims  of  nature 
being  set  aside,  and  the  constitution  of  the  government  despotic  from 
the  beginning,  his  misery  involves  no  injustice  and  admits  of  no 
remedy.  It  requires  little  discernment  to  see  that  this  theory  rivets 
the  chains  of  despotism,  and  shuts  out  from  the  political  world  the 
smallest  glimpse  of  emancipation  or  improvement.  Its  language  is, 
he  that  is  a  slave  let  him  be  a  slave  still. 

3.  It  is  incumbent  on  Mr.  Burke  and  his  followers  to  ascertain  the 
time  when  natural  rights  are  relinquished.  Mr.  Hey  is  content  with 
tracing  their  existence  to  society,  whUe  Mr.  Burke,  the  more  moderate 
of  the  two,  admitting  their  foundation  in  nature,  only  contends  that 
regular  government  absorbs  and  swallows  them  up,  bestowing  artificial 
advantages  in  exchange.  But  at  what  period,  it  may  be  inquired,  shall 
we  date  this  wonderful  revolution  in  the  social  condition  of  man  ?  If 
we  say  it  was  as  early  as  the  first  dawn  of  society,  natural  liberty  had 
never  any  existence  at  all,  since  there  are  no  traces  even  in  tradition 
of  a  period  when  men  were  utterly  unconnected  with  each  other.  If 
we  say  this  complete  surrender  took  place  with  the  first  rudiments 
of  law  and  government  in  every  particular  community,  on  what  prin- 
ciple were  subsequent  improvements  introduced  ?  Mr.  Burke  is  fond 
of  resting  our  liberties  on  Magna  Charta  and  the  Bill  of  Rights ;  but 
he  ought  to  remember,  that  as  they  do  not  carry  us  to  the  commence- 
ment of  our  government,  which  was  established  ages  before,  our  fore- 
fathers had  long  ago  resigned  their  natural  liberty.  If  those  famous 
stipulations  only  recognised  such  privileges  as  were  in  force  before, 
they  have  no  claim  to  be  considered  as  the  foundations  of  our  constitu- 
tion ;  but  if  they  formed  an  era  in  the  annals  of  freedom,  they  must 
have  been  erected  on  the  basis  of  those  natural  rights  which  Mr.  Burke 


72  ON  THEORIES,  AND 

ridicules  and  explodes.  When  our  ancestors  made  those  demands,  it 
is  evident  they  did  not  suppose  an  appeal  to  the  rights  of  nature  pre- 
cluded. Every  step  a  civilized  nation  can  take  towards  a  more  equal 
administration  is  either  an  assertion  of  its  natural  liberty  or  a  criminal 
encroachment  on  just  authority.  The  influence  of  government  on  the 
stock  of  natural  rights  may  be  compared  to  that  of  a  manufactory  on 
the  rude  produce ;  it  adds  nothing  to  its  quantity,  but  only  qualifies 
and  fits  it  for  use.  Political  arrangement  is  more  or  less  perfect  in 
proportion  as  it  enables  us  to  exert  our  natural  liberty  to  the  greatest 
advantage  ;  if  it  is  diverted  to  any  other  purpose,  it  is  made  the  instru- 
ment of  gratifying  the  passions  of  a  few,  or  imposes  greater  restraint 
than  its  object  prescribes  ;  it  degenerates  into  tyranny  and  oppression. 

The  greatest  objection  to  these  principles  is  their  perspicuity,  which 
makes  them  ill  relished  by  those  whose  interest  it  is  to  hide  the  nature 
of  government  from  vulgar  eyes,  and  induce  a  persuasion  that  it  is  a 
secret  which  can  only  be  unfolded  to  the  initiated  under  the  conduct 
of  Mr.  Burke,  the  great  hierophant  and  revealer  of  the  mysteries.  A 
mystery  and  a  trick  are  generally  two  sides  of  the  same  object  accord- 
ing as  it  is  turned  to  the  view  of  the  beholder. 

The  doctrine  of  Mr.  Locke  and  his  followers  is  founded  on  the 
natural  equality  of  mankind ;  for  as  no  man  can  have  any  natural  or 
inherent  right  to  rule  any  more  than  another,  it  necessarily  follows 
that  a  claim  to  dominion,  wherever  it  is  lodged,  must  be  ultimately 
referred  back  to  the  explicit  or  implied  consent  of  the  people.  What- 
ever source  of  civil  authority  is  assigned  dift'erent  from  this  will  be 
found  to  resolve  itself  into  mere  force.  But  as  the  natural  equality  of 
one  generation  is  the  same  with  that  of  another,  the  people  have 
always  the  same  right  to  new-model  their  government,  and  set  aside 
their  rulers.  This  right,  like  every  other,  may  be  exerted  capriciously 
and  absurdly ;  but  no  human  power  can  have  any  pretensions  to  inter- 
cept its  exercise.  For  civil  rulers  cannot  be  considered  as  having  any 
claims  that  are  coextended  with  those  of  the  people,  nor  as  forming  a 
party  separate  from  the  nation.  They  are  appointed  by  the  community 
to  execute  its  will,  not  to  oppose  it ;  to  manage  the  public,  not  to  pursue 
2Lny  private  or  particular  interests.  Are  all  the  existing  authorities  in 
a  state  to  lie  then,  it  may  be  said,  at  the  mercy  of  the  populace,  liable 
to  be  dissipated  by  the  first  breath  of  public  discontent  ?  By  no 
means ;  they  are  to  be  respected  and  obeyed  as  interpreters  of  the 
public  will.  Till  they  are  set  aside  by  the  imequivocal  voice  of  the 
people,  they  are  a  law  to  every  member  of  the  community.  To  resist 
them  is  rebellion;  and  for  any  particular  set  of  men  to  attempt  their 
subversion  by  force  is  a  heinous  crime,  as  they  represent  and  imbody 
the  collective  majesty  of  the  state.  They  are  the  exponents,  to  use  the 
language  of  algebra,  of  the  precise  quantity  of  liberty  the  people  have 
thought  fit  to  legalize  and  secure.  But  though  they  are  a  law  to  every 
member  of  the  society  separately  considered,  they  cannot  bind  the 
society  itself,  or  prevent  it,  when  it  shall  think  proper,  from  forming 
an  entire  new  arrangement ;  a  right  that  no  compact  can  alienate  or 
diminish,  and  which  has  been  exerted  as  often  as  a  free  government 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAIST.  73 

has  been  formed.  On  this  account,  in  resolving  the  right  of  dominion 
into  compact,  Mr.  Locke  appears  to  me  somewhat  inconsistent,  or  he 
has  expressed  himself  with  less  clearness  and  accuracy  than  wa? 
usual  with  that  great  philosopher.  Tiiere  must  have  been  a  previous 
right  to  insist  on  stipulations  in  those  who  formed  them ;  nor  is  there 
any  reason  why  one  race  of  men  is  not  as  competent  to  that  purpose 
as  another. 

With  the  enemies  of  freedom  it  is  a  usual  artifice  to  represent  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people  as  a  license  to  anarchy  and  disorder.  But 
the  tracing  up  civil  power  to  that  source  will  not  diminish  our  obliga- 
tion to  obey ;  it  only  explains  its  reasons,  and  settles  h  on  clear  deter- 
minate principles.  It  turns  blind  submission  into  rational  obedience, 
tempers  the  passion  for  liberty  with  the  love  of  order,  and  places  man- 
kind in  a  happy  medium  between  the  extremes  of  anarchy  on  the  one 
side  and  oppression  on  the  other.  It  is  the  polar  star  that  will  con- 
duct us  safe  over  the  ocean  of  political  debate  and  speculation,  the  law 
of  laws,  the  legislator  of  legislators. 

To  reply  to  all  the  objections  that  have  been  advanced  against  this 
doctrine  would  be  a  useless  task,  and  exhaust  the  patience  of  the 
reader ;  but  there  is  one  drawn  from  the  idea  of  a  majority  much  in- 
sisted on  by  Mr.  Burke  and  Mr.  Hey,  of  which  the  latter  gentleman  is 
so  enamoured  that  he  has  spread  it  out  into  a  multitude  of  pages. 
They  assert  that  the  theory  of  natural  rights  can  never  be  realized, 
because  every  member  of  the  community  cannot  concur  in  the  choice 
of  a  government,  and  the  minority,  being  compelled  to  yield  to  the  de- 
cisions of  the  majority,  are  under  tyrannical  restraint.  To  this  rea- 
soning it  is  a  sufficient  answer,  that  if  a  number  of  men  act  together 
at  all,  the  necessity  of  being  determined  by  the  sense  of  the  majority 
in  the  last  resort  is  so  obvious  that  it  is  always  implied.  An  exact 
concurrence  of  many  particular  wills  is  impossible  ;  and  therefore 
when  each  taken  separately  has  precisely  the  same  influence,  there 
can  be  no  hardship  in  suffering  the  result  to  remain  at  issue  till  it  is 
determined  by  the  coincidence  of  the  greater  number.  The  idea  of 
natural  liberty,  at  least,  is  so  little  violated  by  this  method  of  proceed- 
ing, that  it  is  no  more  than  what  takes  place  every  day  in  the  smallest 
society,  where  the  necessity  of  being  determined  by  the  voice  of  the 
majority  is  so  plain  that  it  is  scarcely  ever  reflected  upon.  The  de- 
fenders of  the  rights  of  man  mean  not  to  contend  for  impossibilities. 
We  never  hear  of  a  right  to  fly,  or  to  make  two  and  two  five.  If  the 
majority  of  a  nation  approve  its  government,  it  is  in  this  respect  as 
free  as  the  smallest  association  or  club  ;  any  thing  beyond  which  must 
be  visionary  and  romantic. 

The  next  objection  Mr.  Hey  insists  upon  is,  if  possible,  still  more 
frivolous,  turning  on  the  case  of  young  persons  during  minority.  He 
contends,  that  as  some  of  these  have  more  sense  than  may  be  found 
among  common  mechanics  and  the  lowest  of  the  people,  natural  right 
demands  their  inclinations  to  be  consulted  in  political  arrangements. 
Were  there  any  method  of  ascertaining  exactly  the  degree  of  under- 
standing possessed  by  young  persons  during  their  minority,  so  as  to 


74  ON  THEORIES,  AND 

distinguish  early  intellects  from  the  less  mature,  there  would  be  some 
force  in  the  objection ;  in  the  present  case,  the  whole  supposition  is 
no  more  than  one  of  those  chimeras  which  this  gentleman  is  ever  fond 
of  combating,  with  the  same  gravity  and  to  as  little  purpose  as  Don 
Quixote  his  windmill. 

The  period  of  minorit}%  it  is  true,  varies  in  different  countries,  and 
is  perhaps  best  determined  everywhere  by  ancient  custom  and  habit. 
An  early  maturity  may  confer  on  sixteen  more  sagacity  than  is  some- 
times found  at  sixty  ;  but  what  then  ?  A  wise  government,  having  for 
its  object  human  nature  at  large,  will  be  adapted,  not  to  its  accidental 
deviations,  but  to  its  usual  aspects  and  appearances.  For  an  answer 
to  his  argument  against  natural  rights,  drawn  from  the  exclusion  of 
women  from  political  power,  I  beg  leave  to  refer  the  author  to  the 
ingenious  Miss  Wolstonecraft,  the  eloquent  patroness  of  female  claims  ; 
unless,  perhaps,  every  other  empire  may  appear  mean  in  the  estima- 
tion of  those  who  possess  with  an  uncontrolled  authority  the  empire 
of  the  heart. 

"The  situation"  says  Mr.  Hey  (p.  137),  "in  which  any  man  finds 
himself  placed  when  he  arrives  at  the  power  of  reflecting  appears  to 
be  the  consequence  of  a  vast  train  of  events,  extending  backwards 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  years  for  aught  he  can  tell,  and  totally  baf- 
fling all  the  attempts  at  comprehension  by  human  faculties." 

From  hence  he  concludes  all  inquiry  into  the  rights  of  man  should 
be  forborne.  "  What  rights  this  being  (God)  may  have  possibly  in- 
tended that  I  miglit  claim  from  beings  like  myself,  if  he  had  thought 
proper  that  I  had  lived  among  them  in  an  tinconnected  state,  that  is  to 
say,  what  are  the  rights  of  a  mere  man,  appears  a  question  involved 
in  such  obscurity  that  I  cannot  trace  even  any  indication  of  that  Being 
having  intended  me  to  inquire  into  it." 

If  any  thing  be  intended  by  these  observations,  it  is  that  we  ought 
never  to  attempt  to  ameliorate  our  condition  till  we  are  perfectly  ac- 
quainted with  its  causes.  But  as  the  subjects  of  the  worst  govern- 
ment are  probably  as  ignorant  of  the  train  of  events  for  some  thou- 
sands of  years  back  as  those  who  enjoy  the  best,  they  are  to  rest 
contented,  it  seems,  until  they  can  clear  up  that  obscurity,  and  inquire 
no  farther. 

It  would  seem  strange  to  presume  an  inference  good  from  not 
knowing  how  we  arrived  at  it.  Yet  this  seems  as  reasonable  as  to 
suppose  the  political  circumstances  of  a  people  fit  and  proper  on  ac- 
count of  our  inability  to  trace  the  causes  that  produced  them.  To 
know  the  source  of  an  evil  is  only  of  consequence  as  it  may  chance 
to  conduct  us  to  the  remedy.  But  the  whole  paragraph  I  have  quoted 
betrays  the  utmost  perplexity  of  thought ;  confounding  the  civil  con- 
dition of  individuals  with  the  political  institution  of  a  society.  The 
former  will  be  infinitely  various  in  the  same  community,  arising  from 
the  different  character,  temper,  and  success  of  its  members  ;  the  latter 
unites  and  pervades  the  whole,  nor  can  any  abuses  attach  to  it  but 
what  may  be  displayed  and  remedied. 

It  is  perfectly  disingenuous  in  this  author  to  represent  his  adver- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN-  75 

saries  as  desirous  of  committing  the  business  of  legislation  indiscrimi- 
nately to  the  meanest  of  mankind.*  He  well  knows  the  wildest 
democratical  writer  contends  for  nothing  more  than  popular  govern- 
ment by  representation.  If  the  labouring  part  of  the  people  are  not 
competent  to  choose  legislators,  the  English  constitution  is  essentially 
wrong ;  especially  in  its  present  state,  where  the  importance  of  each 
vote  is  enhanced  by  the  paucity  of  the  electors. 

After  the  many  examples  of  misrepresentation  Avhich  this  author  has 
furnished,  his  declamations  on  the  levelling  system  cannot  be  matter 
of  surprise.  An  equality  of  rights  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
utmost  disproportion  between  the  objects  to  which  they  extend.  A 
peasant  may  have  the  same  right  to  the  exertion  of  his  faculties  with 
a  Newton  ;  but  this  will  not  fill  up  the  vast  chasm  that  separates  them. 

The  ministry  will  feel  great  obligations  to  Mr.  Hey  for  putting  oft' 
the  evil  day  of  reform  to  a  far  distant  period, — a  period  so  remote, 
that  they  may  hope  before  it  is  completed  their  names  and  their  actions 
will  be  buried  in  friendly  oblivion.  He  indulges  a  faint  expectation, 
he  tells  us,  that  the  practice  of  governments  may  be  improved  in  two 
or  three  thousand  years. 

A  smaller  edition  of  this  work  has  lately  been  published,  consider- 
ably abridged,  for  the  use  of  the  poor,  who,  it  may  be  feared,  will  be 
very  little  benefited  by  its  perusal.  Genius  may  dazzle,  eloquence  may 
persuade,  reason  may  convince ;  but  to  render  popular  cold  and  com- 
fortless sophistry,  unaided  by  those  powers,  is  a  hopeless  attempt. 

I  have  trespassed,  I  am  afraid,  too  far  on  the  patience  of  my  readers, 
in  attempting  to  expose  the  fallacies  by  which  the  followers  of  Mr. 
Burke  perplex  the  understanding,  and  endeavour  to  hide  in  obscurity 
the  true  sources  of  political  power.  Were  there  indeed  any  impro- 
priety in  laying  them  open,  the  blame  would  not  fall  on  the  friends  of 
freedom,  but  on  the  provocation  afforded  by  the  extravagance  and  ab- 
surdity of  its  enemies.  If  princely  power  had  never  been  raised  to  a 
level  with  the  attributes  of  the  Divinity  by  Filmer,  it  had  probably  never 
been  sunk  as  low  as  popular  acquiescence  by  Locke.  The  confused 
mixture  of  liberty  and  oppression  which  ran  through  the  feudal  system 
prevented  the  theory  of  government  from  being  closely  inspected;  parti- 
cular rights  were  secured,  but  the  relation  of  the  people  to  their  rulers 
was  never  explained  on  its  j  jst  principles  till  the  transfer  of  superstition 
to  civil  power  shocked  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  and  awakened 
their  inquiries.  They  drew  aside  the  ved,  and  where  they  were 
taught  to  expect  a  mystery  they  discerned  a  fraud.  There  is  how- 
ever no  room  to  apprehend  any  evil  from  political  investigation  that 
will  not  be  greatly  overbalanced  by  its  advantages.  For  besides  that 
truth  is  always  beneficial,  tame  submission  to  usurped  power  has 

*  "  A  man  whose  hands  and  ideas  have  been  usefully  confined  for  thirty  or  forty  years  to  the  labour 
and  management  of  a  farm,  or  the  construction  of  a  wall  or  piece  of  cloih,  does  indeed,  in  one 
respect,  appear  superior  to  an  infant  three  months  old.  The  man  could  make  a  law  of  some  sort  or 
other;  the  infant  could  not.  The  man  could,  in  any  particular  circumstances  of  a  nation,  say 
these  words,  We  will  go  to  war,  or  we  will  not  go  to  war ;  the  infant  could  not.  But  the  difference 
between  them  is  more  in  appearance  than  in  any  useful  reality.  The  man  is  totally  unqualified  to 
judge  what  ought  to  be  enacted  for  laws." — Uey,  p.  31. 


76  ON  DISSENTERS. 

hitherto  been  the  malady  of  human  nature.  The  dispersed  situation 
of  mankind,  their  indolence  and  inattention,  and  the  opposition  of  their 
passions  and  interests  are  circumstances  which  render  it  extremely 
difficult  for  them  to  combine  in  resisting  tyranny  with  success.  In 
the  field  of  government,  as  in  that  of  the  world,  the  tares  of  despotism 
were  scion  while  men  slept !  The  necessity  of  regular  government, 
under  some  form  or  other,  is  so  pressing,  that  the  evil  of  anarchy  is 
of  short  duration.  Rapid,  violent,  destructive  in  its  course,  it  is  an 
inundation  which,  fed  by  no  constant  spring,  soon  dries  up  and  disap- 
pears. The  misfortune  on  these  occasions  is,  that  the  people,  for  want 
of  understanding  the  principles  of  liberty,  seldom  reach  the  true  source 
of  their  misery;  but  after  committing  a  thousand  barbarities,  only 
change  their  masters,  when  they  should  change  their  system. 


SECTION    V. 

On  Dissenters. 

Of  that  foul  torrent  of  insult  and  abuse  which  it  has  lately  been  the 
lot  of  the  friends  of  liberty  to  sustain,  a  larger  portion  hath  fallen  to 
the  share  of  dissenters  than  any  other  description  of  men.  Their 
sentiments  have  been  misrepresented,  their  loyalty  suspected,  and 
their  most  illustrious  characters  held  up  to  derision  and  contempt. 
The  ashes  of  the  dead  have  been  as  httle  spared  as  the  merit  of  the 
living ;  and  the  same  breath  that  has  attempted  to  depreciate  the 
talents  and  virtues  of  a  Priestley  is  employed  to  blacken  the  memory 
of  a  Price.  The  effusions  of  a  distempered  loyalty  are  mingled  with 
execrations  on  that  unfortunate  sect ;  as  if  the  attachment  to  the  king 
were  to  be  measured  by  the  hatred  to  dissenters.  Witliout  any  shadow 
of  criminality,  they  are  doomed  to  sustain  perpetual  insult  and  re- 
proach ;  their  repose  disturbed,  and  their  lives  threatened  and  endan- 
gered. If  dissent  be  in  truth  a  crime  of  such  magnitude  that  it  must 
not  be  tolerated,  let  there  be  at  least  a  punishment  prescribed  by  law, 
that  they  may  know  what  they  have  to  expect,  and  not  lie  at  the  mercy 
of  an  enraged  and  deluded  populace.  It  is  natural  to  inquire  into  the 
cause  of  this  extreme  virulence  against  a  particular  class  of  the  com- 
munity, who  are  distinguished  from  others  only  by  embracing  a  differ- 
ent form  and  system  of  worship. 

In  the  practice  of  the  moral  virtues  it  will  hardly  be  denied  that  they 
are  at  least  as  exemplary  as  their  neighbours ;  while  in  the  more  im- 
mediate duties  of  religion,  if  there  be  any  distinction,  it  lies  in  their 
carrying  to  a  greater  height  sentiments  of  seriousness  and  devotion. 
The  nature  of  their  public  conduct  will  best  appear  from  a  rapid  survey 
of  some  of  those  great  political  events  in  which  it  has  had  room  to  dis- 
play itself;  where,  though  our  history  has  been  ransacked  to  supply 
invective,  it  will  be  seen  their  merits  more  than  compensate  for  any 
errors  they  may  have  committed.  Their  zeal  in  opposing  Charles  I. 
has  been  an  eternal  theme  of  reproach ;  but  it  should  be  remembered 


ON  DISSENTERS.  77 

that  when  that  resistance  first  took  place  the  parliament  consisted  for 
the  most  part  of  churchmen,  and  was  fully  justified  in  its  opposition 
by  the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  court.  Had  the  pretensions  of 
Charles  been  patiently  acquiesced  ui,  our  government  had  long  ago 
been  despotic. 

What  medium  might  have  been  found  between  tame  submission  and 
open  hostility,  and  whether  matters  were  not  afterward  pushed  to  an 
extremity  against  the  unfortunate  monarch,  it  is  not  for  me  to  deter- 
mine, nor  does  it  concern  the  vindication  of  dissenters.  For,  long  before 
the  final  catastrophe  whicli  issued  in  the  king's  death,  the  favourable 
intentions  of  parliament  were  overruled  by  the  ascendency  of  Crom- 
well, the  parliament  itself  oppressed  by  his  arms,  and  the  influence 
both  of  churchmen  and  dissenters  bent  under  military  usurpation.  The 
execution  of  Charles  was  tlie  deed  of  a  faction,  condemned  by  the  great 
body  of  the  puritans  as  a  criminal  severity.  But  whatever  blame  they 
may  be  supposed  to  have  incurred  on  account  of  their  conduct  to 
Charles,  the  merit  of  restoring  monarchy  in  his  son  was  all  their  own. 
The  entire  force  of  the  empire  was  in  their  hands ;  Monk  himself  of 
their  party  ;  the  parliament,  the  army,  all  puritans  ;  yet  were  they  dis- 
interested enough  to  call  the  heir  to  the  throne,  and  yield  the  reins  into 
his  hands,  with  no  other  stipulation  than  that  of  liberty  of  conscience, 
which  he  violated  with  a  baseness  and  ingratitude  peculiar  to  his  char- 
acter. All  the  return  he  made  them  for  the  recovery  of  his  power 
consisted  in  depriving  two  thousand  of  their  ministers,  and  involving 
the  whole  body  in  a  persecution  by  which  not  less  than  ten  thousand 
are  supposed  to  have  perished  in  imprisonment  and  want.  But  their 
patriotism  was  not  to  be  shaken  by  these  injuries.  When,  towards  the 
latter  end  of  Charles  the  Second's  reign,  the  character  of  his  successor 
inspired  a  dread  of  the  establishment  of  popery,  to  avert  that  evil  they 
cheerfully  acquiesced  in  an  exclusion  from  all  places  of  emolument 
and  trust, — an  extraordinary  instance  of  magnanimity.  W^hen  James 
the  Second  began  to  display  arbitrary  views,  dissenters  were  among 
the  first  to  take  the  alarm,  regarding  whh  jealousy  even  an  indulgence 
when  it  flowed  from  a  dispensing  power.  The  zeal  with  which  they 
co-operated  in  bringnig  about  the  revolution,  the  ardour  with  which 
they  have  always  espoused  its  principles,  are  too  well  known  to  need 
any  proof,  and  can  only  be  rendered  more  striking  by  a  contrast  with 
the  conduct  of  the  high  church  party.  The  latter  maintained  in  its 
utmost  extent  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance ; 
were  incessantly  engaged  in  intrigues  to  overturn  the  revolution,  and 
affirmed  the  doctrine  of  divine  right  to  be  an  ancient  and  indisputable 
tenet  of  the  English  church.  Whoever  wishes  to  ascertain  the  ex- 
istence of  those  arts  by  which  they  embroiled  the  reign  of  King 
William  may  see  them  displayed  at  large  in  Burnet's  History  of  his 
own  Times. 

The  attachment  of  dissenters  to  the  house  of  Hanover  was  signalized 
in  a  manner  too  remarkable  to  be  soon  forgotten.  In  the  rebellions  of 
'15  and  '45  they  ventured  on  a  breach  of  the  law  by  raising  and 
officering  regiments  out  of  their  own  body,  for  which  the  parliament 


78  ON  DISSENTERS. 

were  reduced  to  the  awkward  expedient  of  passing  an  act  of  indemnity. 
This  short  sketch  of  their  political  conduct,  as  it  is  sufficient  to  estab- 
lish their  loyalty  beyond  suspicion,  so  may  it  well  augment  our  surprise 
at  the  extreme  obloquy  and  reproach  with  which  they  are  treated. 
Mr.  Hume,  a  competent  judge,  if  ever  tiicre  was  one,  of  political  prin- 
ciples, and  who  was  far  from  being  partial  to  dissenters,  candidly 
confesses  that  to  them  we  are  indebted  for  the  preservation  of 
liberty.  ^ 

The  religious  opinions  of  dissenters  are  so  various,  that  there  is 
perhaps  no  point  in  which  they  are  agreed,  except  in  asserting  the  rights 
of  conscience  against  all  human  control  and  authority.  From  the  time 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  under  whom  they  began  to  make  their  appearance, 
their  views  of  religious  liberty  have  gradually  extended,  commencing 
at  first  with  a  disapprobation  of  certain  rites  and  ceremonies,  the  re- 
mains of  papal  superstition.  Their  total  separation  from  the  church 
did  not  take  place  for  more  than  a  century  after ;  till  despairing  of 
seeing  it  erected  on  a  comprehensive  plan,  and  being  moreover  perse- 
cuted for  their  difierence  of  sentiment,  they  were  compelled  at  last 
reluctantly  to  withdraw.  Having  been  thus  directed  by  a  train  of 
events  into  the  right  path,  they  pushed  their  principles  to  their  legiti- 
mate consequences,  and  began  to  discern  the  impropriety  of  all  religious 
establishments  whatever, — a  sentiment  in  which  they  are  now  nearly 
united.  On  this  very  account,  however,  of  all  men  they  are  least  likely 
to  disturb  the  peace  of  society ;  for  they  claim  no  other  liberty  than 
what  they  wish  the  whole  human  race  to  possess,  that  of  deciding 
on  every  question  where  conscience  is  concerned.  It  is  sufferance 
they  plead  for,  not  establishment ;  protection,  not  splendour.  A  dis- 
position to  impose  their  religion  on  others  cannot  be  suspected  in 
men  whose  distinguishing  religious  tenet  is  the  disavowal  of  all  human 
authority. 

Their  opinion  respecting  establishments  is  founded  upon  reasons 
which  appear  to  them  weighty  and  solid.  They  have  remarked,  that 
in  the  three  first  and  purest  ages  of  religion,  the  church  was  a  stranger 
to  any  alliance  with  temporal  powers  ;  that  far  from  needing  their  aid, 
Christianity  never  flourished  so  much  as  while  they  were  combined  to 
suppress  it;  and  that  the  protection  of  Constantine,  though  well  intended, 
diminished  its  purity  more  than  it  added  to  its  splendour. 

The  only  pretence  for  uniting  Christianity  with  civil  government  is 
the  support  it  yields  to  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society.  But  this 
benefit  will  be  derived  from  it,  at  least  in  as  great  a  degree,  without  an 
establishment  as  with  it.  Religion,  if  it  has  any  power,  operates  on 
the  conscience  of  men.  Resting  solely  on  the  belief  of  invisible  reali- 
ties, and  having  for  its  object  the  good  and  evil  of  eternity,  it  can  derive 
no  additional  weight  or  solemnity  from  human  sanctions  ;  but  will  ap- 
pear to  the  most  advantage  upon  liallowed  ground,  remote  from  the 
noise  and  tumults  of  worldly  policy.  Can  it  be  imagined  that  a  dis- 
senter, who  believes  in  divine  revelation,  does  not  feel  the  same  moral 
restraints  as  if  he  had  received  his  religion  from  the  hands  of  parlia- 
ment ?     Human  laws  may  debase  Christianity,  but  can  never  improve 


ON  DISSENTERS. 


79 


it ;  and  being  able  to  add  nothing  to  its  evidence,  they  can  add  nothing 
to  its  force. 

Happy  had  it  been,  however,  had  civil  establishments  of  relioiou 
been  useless  only,  instead  of  being  productive  of  the  greatest  evils.  But 
when  Christianity  is  established  by  law,  it  is  requisite  to  give  the  pre- 
ference to  some  particular  system ;  and  as  the  magistrate  is  no  better 
judge  of  religion  than  others,  the  chances  are  as  great  of  his  lending 
his  sanction  to  the  false  as  to  the  true.  Splendour  and  emolument 
must  likewise  be  hi  some  degree  attached  to  the  national  church ; 
which  are  a  strong  inducement  to  its  ministers  to  defend  it,  be  it  ever 
so  remote  from  the  truth.  Thus  error  becomes  permanent,  and  that 
set  of  opinions  which  happens  to  prevail  when  the  estabhshment  is 
formed  continues,  in  spite  of  superior  light  and  improvement,  to  be 
handed  down  without  alteration  from  age  to  age.  Hence  the  disagree- 
ment between  the  public  creed  of  the  church  and  the  private  sentiments 
of  its  ministers  ;  an  evil  growing  out  of  the  very  nature  of  a  hierarchy, 
and  not  likely  to  be  remedied  before  it  brings  the  clerical  character 
into  the  utmost  contempt.  Hence  the  rapid  spread  of  infidelity  in  va- 
rious parts  of  Europe  ;  a  natural  and  never-failing  consequence  of  the 
corrupt  alliance  between  church  and  state.  Wherever  we  turn  our 
eyes,  we  shall  perceive  the  depression  of  religion  is  in  proportion  to 
the  elevation  of  the  hierarchy.  In  France,  where  the  establishment  had 
attained  the  utmost  splendour,  piety  had  utterly  decayed  ;  in  England, 
Mhere  the  hierarchy  is  less  splendid,  more  remains  of  the  latter ;  and  in 
Scotland,  whose  national  church  is  one  of  the  poorest  in  the  world,  a 
greater  sense  of  religion  appears  among  the  inhabitants  than  in  either 
of  the  former.  It  must  likewise  be  plain  to  every  observer  that  piety 
tlourishes  much  more  among  dissenters  than  among  the  members  of 
any  establishment  whatever.  This  progress  of  things  is  so  natural, 
that  nothing  seems  wanting  in  any  country  to  render  the  thinking 
part  of  the  people  infidels  but  a  splendid  establishment.  It  will  always 
ultimately  debase  the  clerical  character,  and  perpetuate,  both  in  disci- 
pline and  doctrine,  every  error  and  abuse. 

Turn  a  Christian  society  into  an  established  church,  and  it  is  no 
longer  a  voluntary  assembly  for  the  worship  of  God ;  it  is  a  powerful 
corporation,  full  of  such  sentiments  and  passions  as  usually  distinguish 
those  bodies ;  a  dread  of  innovation,  an  attachment  to  abuses,  a  pro- 
pensity to  tyranny  and  oppression.  Hence  the  convulsions  that  accom- 
pany religious  reform,  where  the  truth  of  the  opinions  in  question  is 
little  regarded  amid  the  alarm  that  is  felt  for  the  splendour,  opulence, 
and  power  which  they  are  the  means  of  supporting.  To  this  alliance 
of  Christianity  with  civil  power  it  is  owing  that  ecclesiastical  history 
presents  a  chaos  of  crimes ;  and  that  the  progress  of  religious  opin- 
ions, which,  left  to  itself,  had  been  calm  and  silent,  may  be  traced 
in  blood. 

Among  the  evils  attending  the  alliance  of  church  and  state,  it  is  not 
the  least  that  it  begets  a  notion  of  their  interests  having  some  kind  of 
inseparable,  though  mysterious  connexion ;  so  that  they  who  are  dis- 
satisfied with  the  one,  must  be  enemies  to  the  other.    Our  verj'  language 


80  ON  DISSENTERS. 

is  tinctured  with  this  dehision,  in  which  clmrch  and  king  are  blended 
together  with  an  arrogance  that  seems  copied  from  Cardinal  Wolsey's 
£go  et  rex  mens,  I  and  my  king  ;  as  if  the  establishment  were  of  more 
consequence  than  the  sovereign  who  represents  the  collective  majesty 
of  the  state.  Let  the  interference  of  civil  power  be  withdrawn,  and 
the  animosity  of  sects  will  subside  for  M'ant  of  materials  to  inflame  it ; 
nor  Mali  any  man  suspect  his  neighbour  for  being  of  a  diflerent  religion 
more  than  for  being  of  a  different  complexion  from  himself.  The 
practice  of  toleration,  it  is  true,  has  much  abated  the  violence  of  those 
convulsions  which,  for  more  than  a  century  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation,  shook  Europe  to  its  base ;  but  the  source  and  spring  of 
intolerance  is  by  no  means  exhausted.  The  steam  from  that  infernal 
pit  will  issue  through  the  crevices  until  they  are  filled  up  with  the  ruins 
of  all  human  establishments. 

The  alliance  between  church  and  state  is,  in  a  political  point  of  view, 
extremely  suspicious,  and  much  better  fitted  to  the  genius  of  afi  arbi- 
trary than  a  free  government.  To  the  former  it  may  yield  a  powerful 
support ;  to  the  latter  it  must  ever  prove  dangerous.  The  spiritual 
submission  it  exacts  is  unfavourable  to  mental  vigour,  and  prepares 
the  way  for  a  servile  acquiescence  in  the  encroachments  of  civil  au- 
thority. This  is  so  correspondent  with  facts,  that  tlie  epithet  high 
church,  Avhen  applied  to  politics,  is  familiarly  used  in  our  language  to 
convey  the  notion  of  arbitrary  maxims  of  government. 

As  far  as  submission  to  civil  magistrates  is  a  branch  of  moral  virtue, 
Christianity  will,  under  every  form,  be  sure  to  enforce  it ;  for  among 
the  various  sects  and  parties  into  which  its  profession  is  divided,  there 
subsists  an  entire  agreement  respecting  the  moral  duties  it  prescribes. 
To  select,  therefore,  and  endow  a  particular  order  of  clergy  to  teach 
the  duties  of  submission  is  useless  as  a  means  to  secure  the  peace  of 
a  society,  though  well  fitted  to  produce  a  slavish  subjection.  Ministers 
of  that  description,  considering  themselves  as  allies  of  the  state,  yet 
having  no  civil  department,  will  be  disposed,  on  all  occasions,  to  strike 
in  with  the  current  of  the  court ;  nor  are  they  likely  to  confine  the 
obligation  to  obedience  Avithin  any  just  and  reasonable  bounds.  They 
will  insensibly  become  an  army  of  spiritual  janizaries.  Depending,  as 
they  everywhere  must,  upon  the  sovereign,  his  prerogative  can  never 
be  exalted  too  high  for  their  emolument,  nor  can  any  better  instruments 
be  contrived  for  the  accomplishment  of  arbitrary  designs.  Their  com- 
pact and  united  form,  composing  a  chain  of  various  links  which  hangs 
suspended  from  the  throne,  admirably  fits  them  for  conveying  the  im- 
pression that  may  sooth,  inflame,  or  mislead  the  people. 

These  are  the  evils  which,  in  my  opinion,  attach  to  civil  establish- 
ments of  Christianity.  They  are,  indeed,  often  mitigated  by  the  virtue 
of  their  members ;  and  among  the  English  clergy  in  particular,  as 
splendid  examples  of  virtue  and  talents  might  be  produced  as  any 
which  the  annals  of  human  nature  can  afford  ;  but  in  all  our  reasonings 
concerning  men,  we  must  lay  it  down  as  a  maxim  that  the  greater  part 
are  moulded  by  circumstances.     If  we  wish  to  see  the  true  spirit  of 


ON  DISSENTERS.  81 

a  hierarchy,  we  have  only  to  attend  to  the  conduct  of  what  is  usually 
termed  the  high  church  party. 

While  they  had  sufficient  influence  with  the  legislature,  they  im- 
pelled it  to  persecute ;  and  now  that  a  more  enlightened  spirit  has 
brought  that  expedient  into  disgrace,  they  turn  to  the  people  and  en- 
deavour to  inflame  their  minds  by  the  arts  of  calumny  and  detraction. 
When  the  dissenters  applied  for  the  repeal  of  the  corporation  and  test 
acts,  an  alarm  was  spread  of  the  church  being  in  danger,  and  their 
claim  was  defeated.  From  the  late  opposition  of  the  bishops  to  tlie 
repeal  of  the  penal  statutes,  we  learn  that  they  have  lost  the  power 
rather  than  the  inclination  to  persecute,  or  they  would  be  happy  to 
abolish  the  monuments  of  a  spirit  they  ceased  to  approve.  The 
nonsense  and  absurdity  comprised  in  that  part  of  our  laws  would 
move  laughter  in  a  company  of  peasants  ;  but  nothing  is  thought  mean 
or  contemptible  which  is  capable  of  being  forged  into  a  weapon  of 
hostility  against  dissenters.  To  perpetuate  laws  which  there  is  no 
intention  to  execute  is  certainly  the  way  to  bring  law  into  contempt ; 
but  the  truth  is,  that,  unwilling  to  relinquish  the  right  of  persecution, 
though  they  have  no  immediate  opportunity  of  exerting  it,  they  retain 
these  statutes  as  a  body  in  reserve,  ready  to  be  brought  into  the  field 
on  the  first  occasion  that  shall  ofi'er.* 

The  prejudice  entertained  against  us  is  not  the  work  of  a  day,  but 
the  accumulation  of  ages,  flowing  from  the  fixed  antipathy  of  a  nu- 
merous and  powerful  order  of  men,  distributed  through  all  the  classes 
of  society ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  conceive  to  what  a  pitch  popular  resent- 
ment may  be  inflamed  by  artful  management  and  contrivance.  Our 
situation  in  this  respect  bears  a  near  resemblance  to  that  of  the  primi- 
tive Christians,  against  whom,  tliough  in  themselves  the  most  inoflen- 
sive  of  mankind,  the  malice  of  the  populace  was  directed  to  a  still 
greater  degree  by  similar  arts,  and  upon  simdar  principles.  The 
clamour  of  the  fanatic  rabble,  the  devout  execration  of  dissenters,  will 
remind  the  reader  of  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  excesses  of  pagan 
ferocity,  when  the  people,  instigated  by  their  priests,  were  wont  to 
exclaim,  Cliristianos  ad  leoiies.  Tliere  is  the  less  hope  of  this  ani- 
mosity being  allayed  from  its  having  arisen  from  permanent  causes. 
That  Christianity  is  a  simple  institution,  unallied  to  worldly  power ; 
that  a  church  is  a  voluntary  society,  invested  with  a  right  to  choose  its 
own  officers,  and  acknowledging  no  head  but  Jesus  Christ ;  that  min- 
isters are  brethren  whose  emolument  should  be  confined  to  the  volun- 
tary contributions  of  the  people,  are  maxims  drawn  from  so  high  an 
authority,  that  it  may  well  be  apprehended  that  the  church  is  doomed 
to  vanish  before  them.  Under  these  circumstances,  wliatever  portion 
of  talents  or  of  worth  dissenters  may  possess  serves  only  to  render 
them  more  hated,  because  more  formidable.  Had  they  merely  revelled 
with  the  wanton,  and  drunk  witli  the  drunken, — had  they  been  clothed 
with  curses,  they  might  have  been  honoured  and  esteemed  notwith- 

*  Tbis  disgrace  to  the  legislation  of  a  great  and  free  countr>'  lias,  at  length,  but  not  till  more 
than  a  third  pari  of  a  century  had  elapsed  after  the  above  reproach  was  penned,  been  linally  removed 
by  an  enactment  for  which  the  dissenters  are  especially  indebted  to  Uie  able  and  zealous  exerticns 
of  that  noble  example  and  advocate  of  all  libera!  principles,  Lord  John  Russell. — Ed. 

Vol.  II.-F 


82  ON  DISSENTERS. 

standing,  as  true  sons  of  the  church ;  but  their  dissent  is  a  crime  too 
indelible  in  the  eyes  of  their  enemies  for  any  virtue  to  alleviate,  or 
any  merit  to  efface. 

Till  the  test  business  was  agitated,  however,  we  were  not  aware  of 
our  labouring  under  such  a  weight  of  prejudice.  Confiding  in  the 
mildness  of  the  times,  and  conscious  that  every  trace  of  resentment 
was  vanished  from  our  own  breasts,  we  fondly  imagined  that  those  of 
churchmen  were  equally  replete  with  sentiments  of  generosity  and 
candour.  We  accordingly  ventured  on  a  renewal  of  our  claim  as 
men  and  as  citizens  ;  but  had  not  proceeded  far  before  we  were  assailed 
with  the  bitterest  reproaches.  The  innocent  design  of  relieving  our- 
selves from  a  disgraceful  proscription  was  construed  by  our  enemies 
into  an  attack  on  the  church  and  state.  Their  opposition  was  both 
more  violent  and  more  formidable  than  was  expected.  They  let  us  see, 
that  however  languidly  the  flame  of  their  devotion  may  burn,  that  of 
resentment  and  party  spirit,  like  vestal  fire,  must  never  be  extinguished 
in  their  temples.  Calumnies  continued  to  be  propagated,  till  they 
produced  the  riots  at  Birmingham,  that  ever  memorable  era  in  the  an- 
nals of  bigotry  and  fanaticism,  when  Europe  beheld  with  astonish- 
ment and  regret  the  outrage  sustained  by  philosophy  in  the  most 
enlightened  of  countries,  and  in  the  first  of  her  sons  !  When  we  hear 
such  excesses  as  these  justified  and  applauded,  we  seem  to  be  falling 
back  apace  into  the  darkness  of  the  middle  ages. 

The  connexion  between  civil  and  religious  liberty  is  too  intimate  to 
make  it  surprising  that  they  who  are  attached  to  the  one  should  be 
friendly  to  the  other.  The  dissenters  have  accordingly  seldom  failed 
to  lend  their  support  to  men  who  seemed  likely  to  restore  the  vigour 
of  a  sinking  constitution.  Parliamentary  reform  has  been  cherished 
by  them  with  an  ardour  equal  to  its  importance.  This  part  of  their 
character  inflames  opposition  still  further;  and  affords  a  pretext  to 
their  enemies  for  overwhelming  the  cause  of  liberty  under  an  obnoxious 
name.  The  reproach  on  this  head,  however,  is  felt  as  an  honour, 
when  it  appears  by  their  conduct  that  they  despair  of  attacking  liberty 
with  success  while  the  reputation  of  dissenters  remains  undiminished. 
The  enmity  of  the  vicious  is  the  test  of  virtue. 

Dissenters  are  reproached  with  the  appellation  of  republicans,  but 
the  truth  of  the  charge  has  neither  appeared  from  facts  nor  been  sup- 
ported by  any  reasonable  evidence.  Among  them,  as  among  other 
classes  (and  in  no  greater  proportion),  there  are  persons  to  be  found, 
no  doubt,  who,  without  any  hostility  to  the  present  government,  prefer 
in  theory  a  republican  to  a  monarchical  form ;  a  point  on  which  the 
most  enlightened  men  in  all  ages  have  entertained  very  different  opin- 
ions. In  a  government  like  ours,  consisting  of  three  simple  elements, 
as  this  variety  of  sentiment  may  naturally  be  expected  to  take  place, 
so  if  any  predilection  be  felt  towards  one  more  than  another,  that  par- 
tiality seems  most  commendable  which  inclines  to  the  republican  part. 
At  most  it  is  only  the  love  of  liberty  to  excess.  The  mixture  of  mon- 
archy and  nobility  is  chiefly  of  use  as  it  gives  regularity,  order,  and 
stability  to  popular  freedom.     Were  we,  however,  without  any  proof, 


ON  DISSENTERS. 


83 


to  admit  tliat  dissenters  are  more  tinctured  with  republican  principles 
than  others,  it  might  be  considered  as  the  natural  effect  of  the  absurd 
conduct  of  the  legislature.  Exposed  to  pains  and  penalties,  excluded 
from  all  offices  of  trust,  proscribed  by  the  spirit  of  the  present  rei"-n, 
menaced  and  insulted  wherever  they  appear,  they  must  be  more  than 
men  if  they  felt  no  resentment,  or  were  passionately  devoted  to  the 
ruling  powers.  To  expect  affection  in  return  for  injur}^  is  to  gather 
where  they  have  not  scattered,  and  reap  where  they  have  not  sown. 
'J'he  superstition  of  dissenters  is  not  so  abject  as  to  prompt  them  to 
worship  the  constitution  through  fear.  Yet  as  they  have  not  forgotten 
the  benefits  it  imparted,  and  the  protection  it  afforded  till  of  late,  they 
are  too  much  its  friends  to  flatter  its  defects  or  defend  its  abuses. 
Their  only  Avish  is  to  see  it  reformed,  and  reduced  to  its  original  prin- 
ciples. 

In  recent  displays  of  loyalty  they  must  acknowledge  themselves 
extremely  defective.  They  have  never  plundered  their  neighbours  to 
show  their  attachment  to  their  king ;  nor  has  their  zeal  for  religion 
ever  broke  out  into  oaths  and  execrations.  They  have  not  proclaimed 
their  respect  for  regular  government  by  a  breach  of  the  laws ;  or 
attempted  to  maintain  tranquillity  by  riots.  These  beautiful  specimens 
of  loyally  belong  to  the  virtue  and  moderation  of  the  high  church 
party  alone,  with  whose  character  they  perfectly  correspond. 

In  a  scurrilous  paper  which  has  been  lately  circulated  with  malig- 
nant industry,  the  dissenters  at  large,  and  Dr.  Price  in  particular,  are 
accused,  with  strange  effrontery,  of  having  involved  us  in  the  American 
war ;  when  it  is  well  known  they  ever  stood  aloof  from  that  scene  of 
guilt  and  blood. 

Had  their  remonstrances  been  regarded,  tlie  calamities  of  that  war 
had  never  been  incurred ;  but,  what  is  of  more  consequence  in  the 
estimation  of  anonymous  scribblers,  there  would  have  remained  one  lie 
less  to  swell  the  catalogue  of  their  falsehoods. 

From  the  joy  which  dissenters  have  expressed  at  the  French  revo- 
lution, it  has  been  most  absurdly  inferred  that  they  wish  for  a  similar 
event  in  England;  without  considering  that  such  a  conclusion  is  a 
libel  on  the  British  constitution,  as  it  must  proceed  on  a  supposition 
that  our  government  is  as  despotic  as  the  ancient  monarchy  of  France. 
To  imagine  the  feelings  must  be  the  same  when  the  objects  are  so 
different  shows  a  most  lamentable  degree  of  malignity  and  folly. 

Encompassed  as  dissenters  are  by  calumny  and  reproach,  they  have 
still  the  satisfaction  to  reflect,  that  these  have  usually  been  the  lot  of 
distinguished  virtue ;  and  that  in  the  corrupt  state  of  men's  interests 
and  passions,  the  unpopularity  of  a  cause  is  rather  a  presumption  of 
its  excellence. 

They  will  be  still  more  happy  if  the  frowns  of  the  world  should  be 
the  means  of  reviving  that  spirit  of  evangelical  piety  which  once  dis- 
tinguished them  so  highly.  Content  if  they  can  gain  protection,  with- 
out being  so  romantic  as  to  aspire  to  praise,  they  will  continue  firm,  I 
doubt  not,  in  those  principles  which  they  have  hitherto  acted  on,  unse- 
duced  by  rewards,  and  unshaken  by  dangers.     From  the  passions  of 

F2 


84  ON  DISSENTERS. 

th(  ir  enemies,  they  will  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  posterity ; — a  more 
impartial  tribunal.  Above  all,  they  will  calmly  await  the  decision  of 
the  Great  Judge,  before  whom  both  they  and  their  enemies  must  ap- 
pear, and  the  springs  and  sources  of  their  mutual  animosity  be  laid 
open  ;  when  the  clouds  of  misrepresentation  being  scattered,  it  will  be 
seen  they  are  a  virtuous  and  oppressed  people,  who  are  treading, 
though  with  unequal  steps,  in  the  path  of  those  illustrious  prophtts, 
apostles,  and  martyrs  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy.  In  the 
mean  time  they  are  far  from  envying  the  popularity  and  applause  which 
may  be  acquired  in  a  contrary  course ;  esteeming  the  reproaches  of 
freedom  above  the  splendours  of  servitude. 


SECTION   VI. 

On  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Discontents. 

We  have  arrived,  it  is  a  melancholy  truth  which  can  no  longer  be 
concealed, — we  have  at  length  arrived  at  that  crisis  Avhen  nothing  but 
speedy  and  effectual  reform  can  save  us  from  ruin.  An  amendment 
in  the  representation  is  wanted,  as  well  to  secure  the  liberty  Ave  already 
possess  as  to  open  the  way  for  the  removal  of  those  abuses  which 
pervade  every  branch  of  the  administration.  The  accumulation  of  debt 
and  taxes  to  a  degree  unexampled  in  any  other  age  or  country,  has  so 
augmented  the  influence  of  the  crown  as  to  destroy  the  equipoise  and 
balance  of  the  constitution.  The  original  design  of  the  funding  sys- 
tem, which  commenced  in  the  reign  of  King  William,  was  to  give 
stability  to  the  revolution  by  engaging  the  moneyed  interest  to  embark 
on  its  bottom.  It  immediately  advanced  the  influence  of  the  crown, 
which  the  whigs  then  exalted  as  much  as  possible  as  a  countervail  to 
the  interests  of  the  pretender. 

The  mischief  of  this  short-sighted  policy  cannot  be  better  described 
than  in  the  language  of  Bolingbroke.  "  Few  men,"  says  he,  "  at  that 
time  looked  forward  enough  to  foresee  the  consequences  of  the  new 
constitution  of  the  revenue  that  was  soon  afterward  formed,  nor  of  the 
method  of  the  funding  system  that  immediately  took  place ;  which, 
absurd  as  they  are,  have  continued  since,  till  it  has  become  scarce 
possible  to  alter  them.  Few  people,  I  say,  foresaw  how  the  multipli- 
cation of  taxes  and  the  creation  of  funds  would  increase  yearly  the 
power  of  the  crown,  and  bring  our  liberties,  by  a  natural  and  necessary 
progression,  into  a  more  real  though  less  apparent  danger  than  they 
were  in  before  the  revolution ;  a  due  reflection  on  the  experience  of 
other  ages  and  countries  would  have  pointed  out  national  corruption 
as  the  natural  and  necessary  consequence  of  investing  the  crown  with 
the  management  of  so  vast  a  revenue  ;  and  also  the  loss  of  liberty  as 
the  natural  and  necessary  consequence  of  national  corruption."* 

If  there  be  any  truth  in  these  reflections,  how  much  must  our  appre- 
hensions be  heightened  by  the  prodigious  augmentation  of  revenue  and 

*  Letter  II.  on  the  Study  of  History. 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS. 


85 


debt  since  the  time  of  George  the  First !  What  a  harvest  has  been 
reaped  from  the  seeds  of  corruption  then  sown  ! — The  revenue  is  now 
upwards  of  seventeen  millions,  and  though  nine  are  employed  to  pay 
the  interest  of  the  national  debt,  this  is  small  consolation  when  we 
reflect  that  that  debt  is  the  remnant  of  wasteful,  destructive  wars,  and 
that  till  there  is  a  change  in  the  system  we  are  continually  liable  to 
similar  calamities.  The  multiplied  channels  through  which  seven- 
teen millions  of  money  must  flow  into  the  treasury,  the  legion  of  oflTicers 
it  creates,  the  patronage  its  expenditure  on  the  several  branches  of  the 
administration  supplies,  have  rendered  the  influence  of  the  crown 
nearly  absolute  and  decisive.  The  control  of  parliament  sinks  under 
this  pressure  into  formality :  the  balance  of  the  different  orders  becomes 
a  mere  theory,  which  serves  to  impose  upon  ignorance  and  varnish 
corruption.  There  is  no  power  in  the  state  that  can  act  as  a  sufficient 
antagonist  to  the  silent  irresistible  force  of  royal  patronage. 

The  influence  of  the  crown,  by  means  of  its  revenue,  is  more  dan- 
gerous than  prerogative,  in  proportion  as  corruption  operates  after  a 
more  concealed  manner  than  force.  A  violent  act  of  prerogative  is 
sensibly  felt  and  creates  an  alarm ;  but  it  is  the  nature  of  coiTuption 
to  lay  apprehension  asleep,  and  to  efl'ect  its  purposes  whUe  the  forms 
of  liberty  remain  undisturbed.  The  first  employs  force  to  enslave  the 
people ;  the  second  employs  the  people  to  enslave  themselves.  The 
most  determined  enemy  to  freedom  can  wish  for  nothing  more  than 
the  continuance  of  present  abuses.  While  the  semblance  of  rep- 
resentation can  be  maintained,  while  popular  delusion  can  be  kept 
up,  he  will  spare  the  extremities  of  liberty.  He  aims  at  a  higher 
object,  that  of  striking  at  the  heart. 

A  fatal  lethargy  has  long  been  spreading  among  us,  attended,  as  is 
natural,  with  a  prevailing  disposition  both  in  and  out  of  parliament  to 
treat  plans  of  reform  with  contempt.  After  the  accession,  place  and 
pension  bills  were  frequently  passed  by  the  commons  though  rejected 
by  the  lords  ;  nothing  of  that  nature  is  now  ever  attempted.  A  stand- 
ing army  in  time  of  peace  was  a  subject  of  frequent  complaint,  and  is 
expressly  provided  against  by  tlie  Bill  of  Rights :  it  is  now  become  a 
part  of  the  constitution  ;  for  though  the  nominal  direction  be  placed  in 
parliament,  the  mutiny  bill  passes  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  forces  are 
never  disbanded ;  the  more  completely  to  detach  thsm  from  the  com- 
munity, barracks  are  erected ;  and  martial  law  is  established  in  its 
utmost  severity.  If  freedom  can  survive  this  expedient,  copied  from 
the  practice  of  foreign  despots,  it  will  be  an  instance  of  tmexampled 
good  fortune.  Mr.  Hume  terms  it  a  mortal  distemper  in  the  British 
constitution,  of  which  it  must  inevitably  perish. 

To  whatever  cause  it  be  owing,  it  is  certain  the  measures  of  adminis- 
tration have,  during  the  present  reign,  leaned  strongly  tovvards  arbitrary 
power.  The  decision  on  the  Middlesex  election  was  a  blow  aimed  at 
the  vitals  of  the  constitution.  Before  the  people  had  time  to  recover 
from  their  panic  they  were  plunged  into  the  American  war — a  war  of 
pride  and  ambition,  and  ending  in  humiliation  and  disgrace.  The  spirit 
of  the  government  is  so  well  understood,  that  the  most  violent  even 


86  ON  THE  CAUSES  OF 

of  the  clergy  are  content  to  drop  their  animosity,  to  turn  their  affections 
into  a  new  channel,  and  to  devote  to  the  house  of  Hanover  the  flattery 
and  the  zeal  by  which  they  ruined  the  race  of  Stuart.  There  cannot 
be  a  clearer  symptom  of  the  decay  of  liberty  than  the  dread  of  specu- 
lative opinions,  which  is  at  present  carried  to  a  length  in  this  nation 
that  can  scarcely  be  exceeded.  Englishmen  Avere  accustomed  till  of 
late  to  make  political  speculation  the  amusement  of  leisure  and  the 
employment  of  genius ; — they  are  now  taught  to  fear  it  more  than 
death.  Under  the  torpid  touch  of  despotism  the  patriotic  spirit  has 
shrunk  into  a  narrow  compass ;  confined  to  gaze  with  admiration  on 
the  proceedings  of  parliament,  and  listen  to  the  oracles  of  the  minister 
with  silent  acquiescence  and  pious  awe.  Abuses  are  sacred,  and  the 
pool  of  corruption  must  putrify  in  peace.  Persons  who  a  few  years 
back  were  clamorous  for  reform  are  making  atonement  for  having  been 
betrayed  into  any  appearance  of  virtue  by  a  quick  return  to  their 
natural  character.  Is  not  the  kingdom  peopled  with  spies  and  in- 
formers I  Are  not  inquisitorial  tribunals  erected  in  every  corner  of 
the  land  ?  A  stranger  who,  beholding  a  whole  nation  filled  with  alarm, 
should  inquire  the  cause  of  the  commotion,  would  be  a  little  surprised 
on  being  informed,  that  instead  of  any  appearance  of  insurrection  or 
plots,  a  pamphlet  had  only  been  published.  In  a  government  upheld 
by  so  immense  a  revenue,  and  boasting  a  constitution  declared  to  be 
the  envy  of  the  world,  this  abject  distrust  of  its  own  power  is  more 
than  a  million  lectures  on  corruptions  and  abuses.  The  wisdom  of 
ages,  the  masterpiece  of  human  policy,  complete  in  all  its  parts,  and  that 
needs  no  reformation,  can  hardly  support  itself  against  a  sixpenny  pamph- 
let, devoid,  it  is  said,  of  truth  or  ability !  To'require  sycophants  to  blush 
is  exacting  too  great  a  departure  from  the  decorum  of  their  character ; 
but  common  sense  might  be  expected  to  remain  after  shame  is  ex- 
tinguished. 

Whoever  seriously  contemplates  the  present  infatuation  of  the  people 
and  the  character  of  the  leaders  will  be  tempted  to  predict  the  speedy 
downfall  of  liberty.  They  cherish  the  forms  while  they  repress  the 
spirit  of  the  constitution ;  they  persecute  freedom  and  adorn  its  sepul- 
chre. When  corruption  has  struck  its  roots  so  deep,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  even  the  liberty  of  the  press  be  not  of  more  detriment  than 
advantage.  The  prints  which  are  the  common  sources  of  information 
are  replete  with  falsehood ;  virtue  is  calumniated ;  and  scarcely  are 
any  characters  safe  from  their  blast,  except  the  advocates  of  corruption. 
The  greater  part  no  doubt  are  in  the  pay  of  ministry  or  their  ad- 
herents. Thus  delusion  spreads,  and  the  people  are  instructed  to  con- 
found anarchy  with  reform,  their  friends  with  their  oppressors. 

Who  (jan  hear  without  indignant  contempt  the  ministers'  annual 
eulogium'on  the  Englishconstitution !  Is  the  parliament  so  ignorant, 
then,  that  it  needs  to  go  to  school  every  session  to  learn  those  elements 
of  political  knowledge  which  every  Briton  understands  ?  Or  is  the 
nature  of  the  British  constitution  a  secret  in  the  breast  of  the  ministry, 
to  be  opened  with  the  budget  1  Indisputable  excellence  wants  no  en- 
comium; but  this  flattery  is  intended  to  bury  in  an  admiration  of  its 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS.  87 

merit  all  remembrance  of  its  defects.  Whatever  remains  of  beauty  or 
vigour  it  possesses  are  held  in  no  estimation  but  as  they  produce  an 
acquiescence  in  abuses.  It  is  its  imperfections  only  ministers  admire, 
its  corruptions  that  solace  them.  The  topics  of  their  encomium  are 
as  absurd  as  the  purpose  is  infamous.  The  flourishing  state  of  trade 
and  manufactures  is  displayed  in  proof  of  the  unequalled  excellence 
of  the  British  constitution,  without  reflecting  that  a  temporary  decay 
will  support  with  equal  force  an  opposite  conclusion.  For  if  we  owe 
our  present  prosperity  to  the  nature  of  the  government,  our  recent 
calamities  must  be  traced  to  the  same  source,  and  that  constitution 
which  is  now  affirmed  to  be  the  best,  must  be  allowed  during  the 
American  war  to  have  been  the  worst.  That  there  is  a  connexion 
between  commercial  prosperity  and  the  nature  of  a  government  must 
be  admitted ;  but  its  operation  is  gradual  and  slow,  not  felt  from  year 
to  year,  but  to  be  traced  by  the  comparison  of  one  age  and  country 
with  another.  But  allowing  that  our  wealth  may  increase  along  with 
the  increase  of  abuses,  the  nation  we  hope  is  not  so  sordid  as  to  look 
upon  wealth  as  the  supreme  good ;  however  well  that  idea  may  cor- 
respond vvitli  the  views  of  a  ministry  who  seem  determined  to  leave  us 
no  other.  Freedom,  as  it  animates  industry  by  securing  its  rewards, 
opens  a  path  to  wealth ;  but  if  that  wealth  be  suffered  to  debase  a 
people  and  render  them  venal  and  dependent,  it  wdl  silently  conduct 
them  back  again  to  misery  and  depression.  Rome  was  never  more 
opulent  than  on  the  eve  of  departing  liberty.  Her  vast  wealth  was  a 
sediment  that  remained  on  the  reflux  of  the  tide.  It  is  quite  unneces- 
sary to  remind  the  reader  how  all  this  at  present  is  reversed,  and  that 
the  unbounded  prodigality  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  his  successors  in  the  con* 
duct  of  the  war,  which  the  corruption  of  parliament  enabled  them  to 
maintain,  has  plunged  the  nation  into  the  deepest  abyss  of  poverty  and 
distress. 

It  is  singular  enough,  but  I  hope  not  ominous,  that  the  flattery  be- 
stowed by  the  poets  of  antiquity  on  the  ruling  powers  resembles,  in 
every  thing  but  its  elegance,  the  adulation  of  modern  sycophants.  The 
extent  of  empire,  the  improvement  ■o(  arts,  the  diflTusion  of  opulence 
and  splendour,  are  the  topics  with  which  Horace  adorned  the  praises 
of  Augustus :  but  the  penetration  of  Tacitus  developes,  amid  these 
flattering  appearances,  the  seeds  of  ruin.  The  florid  bloom  but  ill 
concealed  that  fatal  malady  which  preyed  upon  the  vitals. 

Between  the  period  of  national  honour  and  complete  degeneracy 
there  is  usually  an  interval  of  national  vanity,  during  which  examples 
of  virtue  are  recounted  and  admired  without  being  imitated.  The 
Romans  were  never  more  proud  of  their  ancestors  than  when  they 
ceased  to  resemble  them.  From  being  the  freest  and  most  high-spirited 
people  in  the  world,  they  suddenly  fell  into  the  tamest  and  most  abject 
submission.  Let  not  the  name  of  Britons,  my  countiymen,  too  much 
elate  you  ;  nor  ever  think  yourselves  safe  while  you  abate  one  jot  of  that 
holy  jealousy  by  which  your  liberties  have  been  hitherto  secured.  The 
richer  the  inheritance  bequeathed  you,  the  more  it  merits  your  care  for 
its  preservation.     The  possession  must  be  continued  by  that  spirit  with 


88  ON  THE  CAUSES  OF 

which  it  was  at  first  acquired ;  and  as  it  was  gained  by  vigilance,  it 
will  be  lost  by  supineness.  A  degenerate  race  repose  on  the  merit  of 
their  forefathers  ;  the  virtuous  create  a  fund  of  their  own.  The  former 
look  back  upon  their  ancestors  to  hide  their  shame ;  the  latter  look 
forward  to  posterity  to  levy  a  tribute  of  admiration.  In  vain  will  you 
confide  in  the  forms  of  a  free  constitution.  Unless  you  reanimate  those 
forms  with  fresh  vigour,  they  will  be  melancholy  memorials  of  what 
you  once  were,  and  haunt  you  with  the  shade  of  departed  liberty.  A 
silent  stream  of  corruption  poured  over  the  whole  land  has  tainted 
every  branch  of  the  administration  with  decay.  On  your  temperate 
but  manly  exertions  depend  the  happiness  and  freedom  of  the  latest 
posterity.  That  assembly  which  sits  by  right  of  representation  will 
be  little  inclined  to  oppose  your  will  expressed  in  a  firm  decisive 
manner.  You  may  be  deafened  by  clamour,  misled  by  sophistry,  or 
weakened  by  division,  but  you  cannot  be  despised  with  impunity.  A 
vindictive  ministry  may  hang  the  terrors  of  criminal  prosecution  over 
the  heads  of  a  few  with  success ;  but  at  their  peril  will  they  attempt 
to  intimidate  a  nation.  The  trick  of  associations,  of  pretended  plots, 
and  silent  insurrections,  will  oppose  a  feeble  barrier  to  the  impression 
of  the  popular  mind. 

The  theory  of  the  constitution  in  the  most  important  particulars  is 
a  satire  on  the  practice.  The  theory  provides  the  responsibility  of 
ministers  as  a  check  to  the  execution  of  ill  designs  ;  but  in  reality  we 
behold  the  basest  of  the  tribe  retreat  from  the  ruin  of  their  country, 
loaded  with  honours  and  with  spoils.  Theory  tells  us  the  parlia- 
ment is  free  and  independent ;  experience  will  correct  the  mistake  by 
showing  its  subservience  to  the  crown.  We  learn  from  the  first  that 
the  legislature  is  chosen  by  the  unbiased  voice  of  all  who  can  be 
supposed  to  have  a  will  of  their  own ;  we  learn  from  the  last  the 
pretended  electors  are  but  a  handful  of  the  people,  who  are  never 
less  at  their  own  disposal  than  in  the  business  of  election.  The  theory 
holds  out  equal  benefits  to  all,  and  equal  liberty,  without  any  other 
discrimination  than  that  of  a  good  and  bad  subject*  its  practice  brands 
with  proscription  and  disgrace  a  numerous  class  of  inhabitants  on 
account  of  their  religion.  In  theory  the  several  orders  of  the  state 
are  a  check  on  each  other ;  but  corruption  has  oiled  the  wheels  of 
that  machinery,  harmonized  its  motions,  and  enabled  it  to  bear,  with 
united  pressure,  on  the  happiness  of  the  people. 

The  principal  remedy  for  the  diseases  of  the  state  is  undoubtedly  a 
reform  in  parliament ;  from  which,  as  a  central  point,  inferior  improve- 
ments may  issue  ;  but  as  I  have  already  treated  on  that  subject  at  large, 
I  shall  not  insist  on  it  here.  I  cannot  close  this  pamphlet,  however, 
without  adverting  for  a  moment  to  a  few  of  the  principal  objects  which 
well  merit  the  attention  of  the  legislature. 

On  the  abuses  in  the  church  it  is  to  little  purpose  to  expatiate,  as 
they  are  too  numerous  to  be  detailed,  and  too  inveterate  to  be  corrected. 
Unless  it  be  a  maxim  that  honesty  will  endanger  her  existence,  her 
creeds  ought  in  all  reason  to  correspond  with  the  sentiments  of  her  mem- 
bers.    The  world,  it  is  to  be  feared,  will  be  little  edified  by  the  example 


I 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS.  89 

of  a  church  which,  in  compelling/  its  ministers  to  subscribe  opinions 
that  few  of  them  believe,  is  a  discipline  of  fraud.  Nor  is  the  collection 
of  tithes  calculated  to  soften  the  odium.  As  a  mode  of  union  with 
the  parishioners,  they  are  fruitful  of  contention ;  as  a  restraint  on  the 
improvement  of  land,  impolitic  and  oppressive ;  as  a  remnant  of  the 
Jewish  law,  superstitious  and  absurd.  True  magnanimity  would  instruct 
the  clergy  to  recede  from  a  claim  which  they  will  probably  be  com- 
pelled shortly  to  relinquish.  But  no  reform,  it  seems,  must  take  place 
in  the  church  any  more  than  in  the  state,  that  its  corruptions  may  keep 
pace  with  the  progress  of  its  ally. 

The  condition  of  the  poor  in  this  country  calls  for  compassion  and 
redress.  Many  of  them,  through  the  want  of  mental  improvement, 
are  sunk  almost  beneath  the  level  of  humanity  ;*  and  their  hard-earned 
pittance  is  so  diminished  by  taxes,  that  it  is  with  the  utmost  difficulty 
they  can  nourish  their  children,  and  utterly  impossible  to  afford  them 
education.  The  poor  laws  enacted  for  their  relief,  by  confining  their 
industry  to  a  particular  spot,  and  denying  them  the  privilege  of  residing 
where  they  may  exert  it  to  the  greatest  advantage,  are  an  accumulated 
oppression.  Were  industry  allowed  to  find  its  level,  were  the  poor- 
laws  abolished,  and  a  small  portion  of  that  expense  which  swells  the 
tide  of  corruption,  the  splendours  of  the  great,  and  the  miseries  of 
war,  bestowed  on  the  instruction  of  the  common  people,  the  happy 
effects  would  descend  to  the  remotest  posterity,  and  open  a  prospect 
which  humanity  might  delight  to  anticipate.  In  England,  we  have 
been  adding  wheel  to  wheel,  and  spring  to  spring,  till  we  have  rendered 
the  machine  of  government  far  too  complicated ;  forgetting,  in  the 
midst  of  wars,  negotiations,  and  factious  disputes,  that  the  true  end  of 
civil  polity  is  the  happmess  of  the  people.  We  have  listened  to  every 
breeze  that  moves  along  the  surface  of  Europe,  and  descried  danger 
from  afar ;  while,  deaf  to  the  complaints  of  the  poor,  we  have  beheld 
ignorance,  wretchedness,  and  barbarity  multiply  at  home,  without  the 
smallest  regard.  Is  it  possible  to  behold  with  patience  the  number- 
less tribe  of  placemen,  pensioners,  and  sycophants  who  are  enriched 
at  the  public  expense  ;  a  noxious  spawn  engendered  by  the  corruptions 
of  government,  and  nourished  by  its  diseases.  Were  our  immense 
revenue  conducive  to  the  maintenance  of  royal  dignity,  or  proportioned 
to  the  exigences  of  the  state,  it  would  be  borne  with  pleasure  ;  but  at 
present  it  bids  fair  to  be  the  purchase  of  our  servitude. 

Our  laws,  in  order  to  become  a  proper  rule  of  civil  life,  much  want 
revision  and  amendment.  They  are  moreover  never  promulgated. 
For  this  omission  Judge  Blackstone  assigns  a  very  curious  reason : 
"  That  being  enacted  by  our  representatives,  every  man  is  supposed, 
in  the  eye  of  the  law,  to  be  present  in  the  legislature."  It  would  be 
an  improvement  on  this  delegated  knowledge  of  the  law,  if  the  penalty 
were  also  delegated,  and  criminals  punished  by  representation.     The 

*  The  change  in  this  respect  since  the  first  publication  of  the  "  Apolog^y"  is  of  the  most  gratifying 
kind.  All  ranks  of  society,  and  all  persuasions  of  Christians,  have  vied  with  each  other  in  their 
efforts  to  give  religious  and  other  useful  instruction  to  the  children  of  the  poor.  Still  there  remains 
much  to  be  done,  and  we  are  in  this  point  of  the  general  education  of  the  lower  classes  very  far 
behind  the  Americans,  especially  those  in  the  state  of  New-York.— Ei». 


90  ON  THE  CAUSES  OF 

laws  in  their  present  state  are  so  piled  into  volumes,  encumbered  with 
precedents,  and  perplexed  with  intricacies,  that  they  are  often  rather  a 
snare  than  a  guide,  and  are  a  fruitful  source  of  the  injustice  they  are 
intended  to  prevent.  The  expense  is  as  formidable  as  the  penalty ; 
nor  is  it  to  any  purpose  to  say  they  are  the  same  to  the  poor  as  to  the 
rich,  while  by  their  delay,  expense,  and  perplexity  they  are  placed  on 
an  eminence  which  opulence  only  can  ascend.  The  commendation 
bestowed  so  liberally  by  foreigners  on  English  jurisprudence  was 
never  meant  to  be  extended  to  our  municipal  code,  which  is  confused, 
perplexed,  and  sanguinary  in  the  extreme ;  but  to  the  trial  by  jury, 
and  the  dignified  impartiality  which  marks  the  conduct  of  judges.  For 
want  of  gradual  improvements,  to  enable  it  to  keep  pace  with  the 
progress  of  society,  the  most  useful  operations  of  law  are  clouded  by 
fictions.* 

These  are  a  few  only  of  the  maladies  which  indicate  a  bad  habit  of  the 
political  body :  nor  can  a  true  estimate  be  made  of  our  situation  so 
much  by  adverting  to  particular  evils  as  by  an  attention  to  the  general 
aspect  of  affairs.  The  present  crisis  is,  in  my  apprehension,  the  fullest 
of  terror  and  of  danger  we  have  ever  experienced.  In  the  extension  of 
excise  laws,  in  the  erection  of  barracks,  in  the  determined  adherence 
to  abuses  displayed  by  parliament,  in  the  desertion  of  pretended  patriots, 
the  spread  of  arbitrary  principles,  the  tame  subdued  spirit  of  the 
nation,  we  behold  the  seeds  of  political  ruin  quickening  into  life.  The 
securities  of  liberty,  as  was  long  since  remarked  by  Dr.  Price,  have 
given  way ;  and  what  remains  is  little  more  than  an  indulgence,  which 
cannot  continue  long  when  it  ceases  to  be  cherished  in  the  affections 
of  the  people.  The  little  of  public  virtue  that  still  subsists  is  no 
match  for  disciplined  armies  of  corruption.  The  people  are  perishing 
for  lack  of  knowledge.  Disquieted  by  imaginary  alarms,  insensible 
to  real  danger  that  awaits  them,  they  are  taught  to  court  that  servitude 
which  will  be  a  source  of  misery  to  themselves  and  to  posterity. 

Deplorable  as  the  prospect  is,  a  precarious  hope  may  be  founded, 
perhaps,  on  the  magnitude  of  abuses.  There  is,  it  has  often  been 
remarked,  an  ultimate  point  both  of  elevation  and  depression  in  the 
affairs  of  kingdoms,  to  which  when  they  arrive  they  begin  to  turn  of 
their  own  accord  and  to  fall  back  into  their  ancient  channels.  We 
are  certainly  entitled  to  all  the  comfort  that  consideration  is  capable 
of  affording.  Taxation  can  hardly  be  more  oppressive,  representation 
more  venal  and  inadequate,  the  influence  of  the  people  more  extin- 
guished, or  falsehood  and  deception  more  triumphant  than  they  are  at 
present. 

There  is  also  another  circumstance  attending  the  present  crisis  which, 
if  we  are  wise  enough  to  improve  it,  may  be  of  the  utmost  advantage. 
Of  the  numberless  political  parties  which  have  hitherto  distracted  our 
attention  and  divided  our  attachment  there  now  remain  but  two, — the 
patrons  of  corruption  and  the  friends  of  liberty  ;  they  who  are  waiting 
for  the  disorders  of  government  to  ripen  into  arbitrary  power,  and 
they  who  are  anxious  to  bring  back  the  constitution  to  its  original 

*  See  an  excellent  publication  on  this  subject,  entitled  "  Juridical  Essays,"  by  Mr.  Randall. 


THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS,  91 

principles.  The  colours  by  wliich  they  are  distinguished  are  too  bold 
and  strong  to  be  ever  confounded ;  or  if  there  could  be  any  possible 
embarrassment  in  the  choice,  the  ministry  have  condescended  to  remove 
that  obscurity,  by  pursuing  an  interest,  not  only  distinct  from,  but 
directly  opposed  to,  that  of  the  people.  The  clamour  of  whigs  and 
lories  hath  happily  subsided ;  and  pretended  patriots  are  at  length  so 
kind  as  to  unmask  before  the  people,  and  stand  forth  in  their  native 
character,  the  objects  of  just  detestation.  We  cannot  wish  for  better 
lessons  of  public  virtue  than  is  furnished  by  the  contrast  of  their 
vices. 

On  the  present  war,  until  the  views  of  the  ministry  are  more 
unfolded,  it  behooves  me  to  speak  with  tenderness  and  reserve.  If 
nothing  more  be  intended  than  the  maintenance  of  national  honour 
and  the  faith  of  treaties,  it  will  merit  the  warmest  support  of  every 
well-wisher  to  his  country.  But  if  the  re-establishment  of  the  ancient 
government  of  France  be  any  part  of  the  object ;  if  it  be  a  war  with 
freedom,  a  confederacy  of  kings  against  the  rights  of  man ;  it  will  be 
the  last  humiliation  and  disgrace  that  can  be  inflicted  on  Great  Britain ; 
and  were  there  any  truth  in  tales  of  incantation,  to  behold  us  engaged 
in  such  a  cause  were  enough  to  disturb  the  repose  of  our  ancestors 
and  move  the  ashes  of  the  dead  !  The  steps  preparatory  to  the  war, 
the  inflamed  passions  and  the  character  of  our  allies,  afford  an  ill 
omen  of  the  temper  Avith  which  it  will  be  conducted.  The  pretence 
respecting  the  Netherlands  certainly  entitles  the  ministry  to  the  praise 
of  consistence.  It  is  quite  of  a  piece  with  the  candour  and  sincerity 
which  affirmed  the  balance  of  Europe  to  be  destroyed  by  the  seizure 
of  Oczakovv,  but  denied  it  was  endangered  by  the  conquest  of  Poland 
and  the  invasion  of  France. 

The  French  revolution,  we  cannot  but  remember,  was  from  the  first 
an  object  of  jealousy  to  ministers.  There  needed  not  the  late  unhappy 
excesses,  the  massacres  of  September,  and  the  execution  of  Louis,  to 
excite  or  display  their  hostility.  It  appeared  in  the  insult  and  derision 
of  their  retainers,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  If  they  meant  fairly 
to  the  interests  of  general  liberty,  why  that  uneasiness  at  the  fall  of 
despotism  in  a  neighbouring  country  I  Why  render  parliament  a  thea- 
tre of  abuse  on  a  revolution  whose  commencement  was  distinguished 
by  unexampled  mildness  and  tranquillity  1  But  this  part  of  their  con- 
duct was  likewise  consistent.  Intent  on  the  destruction  of  liberty  in 
one  country,  they  were  disconcerted  at  seeing  it  revive  in  another ;  and 
before  they  ventured  to  extinguish  the  dying  taper,  waited  for  the  sur- 
rounding scene  to  be  shut  up  in  darkness.  I  am  perfectly  aware  that 
to  speak  in  terms  of  decency  and  respect  of  the  French  revolution  is 
to  incur,  in  the  prevailing  disposition  of  the  times,  the  last  of  infamies. 
If  we  dare  to  rejoice  at  the  emancipation  of  a  great  people  from  thral- 
dom, it  must  be  at  the  peril  of  the  foulest  imputations  that  imagination 
can  invent  or  malignity  apply.  In  contempt,  however,  of  these  calum- 
nies, I  am  free  to  confess  the  French  revolution  has  always  appeared 
to  me,  and  does  still  appear,  the  most  splendid  event  recorded  in  the 
annals  of  history.     The  friends  of  liberty  contemplate  the  crimes  and 


92   ON  THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  DISCONTENTS, 

disorders  with  which  it  has  been  stained*  with  the  deepest  regret,  but 
they  still  hope  that  they  will  in  the  result  be  more  than  compensated 
by  the  grandeur  of  its  principles  and  the  beneficence  of  its  effects. 
Instead  of  wishing  for  a  similar  event  in  England,  they  are  intent  on 
reform  chiefly  to  avoid  that  necessity.  Under  every  Jhr?n  of  govern- 
ment they  know  how  to  recognise  the  divine  aspect  of  freedom,  and 
without  it  can  be  satisfied  with  none.  The  evils  of  anarchy  and  of 
despotism  are  two  extremes  which  they  equally  dread ;  and  between 
which  no  middle  path  can  be  found  but  that  of  effectual  reform.  To 
avert  the  calamities  that  await  us  on  either  side,  the  streams  of  corrup- 
tion must  be  drained  off,  the  independence  of  parliament  restored,  the 
ambition  of  aristocracy  repressed,  and  the  majesty  of  the  people  lift  itself 
up.  It  is  possible  to  retreat  from  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  but  wo  to  that 
nation  which  sleeps  upon  it ! 

*  The  execution  of  the  king  was  certainly  a  most  cruel  and  unjustifiable  transaction,  alike  repug- 
nant to  law,  order,  and  humanity.  Without  being  conducive  to  any  views  of  policy  whatever,  it 
seems  to  have  been  merely  a  gratification  of  the  most  detestable  passions.  The  treatment  of  the 
beautiful  and  unfortunate  queen  and  of  the  royal  family  is  barbarous  and  unmanly  in  the  extreme. 
When  we  look  at  their  sufierings,  humanity  weeps,  and  pity  forgets  their  crimes. 


REVIEW 

OF   THE 

APOLOGY  FOR  THE   FREEDOM   OF  THE   PRESS, 

PUBLISHED    IN 

THE    CHRISTIAN    GUARDIAN: 

AND 

MR.   HALi;S    REPLY. 


[Published  in  1822  .J 


REVIEW 


MR.  HALL'S  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS.* 


Extracted  from  the  Christian  Guardian  for  Jan.  1822. 


"  The  political  principles  of  the  Bible  are  simple,  distinct,  and  plain.  The  sacred 
writers  enter  into  no  niceties,  draw  no  lines  of  exact  demarkation,  meet  no  involved 
cases  of  civil  casuistry  ;  but,  speaking  of  mankind  generally  as  alike  depraved  and 
unruly,  and  of  governments  as  the  creations  of  God's  providence,  they  inculcate, 
without  qualification,  reservation,  or  restriction,  the  obvious  and  indispensable 
duties  of  submission,  honour,  and  obedience. 

"  It  has  been,  however,  very  much  the  fashion  of  late  to  get  rid  of  these  unplea- 
sant and  '■degrading'  injunctions  by  pleading  the  change  of  time  and  circumstances, 
and  the  diflerence  between  the  laws  and  system  of  government  under  which  we 
are  privileged  to  live  and  those  of  the  apostolic  days.  Now,  as  to  the  general  duty 
of  obedience,  it  is  obvious  that  it  must  apply  rather  more  than  less  strongly  to  those 
who  live  under  a  paternal  government  than  to  those  who  live  under  a  tyrannical 
one.  At  the  same  time  we  are  ready  to  allow,  that  the  system  of  freedom  which, 
in  this  country,  gives  to  the  people  a  share  in  the  legislature  and  an  influence  over 
the  government,  renders  the  submission  due  from  them  less  implicit  and  uninquiring, 
at  the  same  time  that  it  increases  the  obligation  to  its  cheerful  payment. 

"  But  although  it  be  conceded  that  under  a  constitution  which  renders  the  people 
a  party  to  their  own  government,  it  is  lawful  and  proper  for  laymen  to  interest 
themselves  intimately  in  political  concerns,  and  even  to  a  certain  extent  to  partici- 
pate in  political  contests,  there  is  one  body  of  men  whom  we  could  ever  wish  to 
see  taking  no  other  part  in  these  matters  than  as  moderators,  instructers,  and 
peacemakers. 

"  The  ministers  of  the  gospel  must,  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty, — they  must, 
if  they  will  '  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,'  sometimes  touch  upon  those  passages 
of  Scripture  which  inculcate  the  duties  of  subjects.  While  St.  Paul,  in  the  davs 
of  Nero  himself,  was  led  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  write,  *  Submit  to  every  ordinance 
of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake ;'  and  to  pronounce,  without  hesitation,  '  He  that  re- 
sisteth  the  power,'  tyrannical  as  it  was  in  the  extreme,  '  resisteth  the  ordinance  of 
God ;'  and  while  similar  passages  abound  in  the  inspired  volume,  it  cannot  be 
thought  consistent  with  the  character  of  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  to  maintain  an 
absolute  silence  on  these  topics.  But  there  is  one  rule  which,  in  our  opinion, 
ministers  would  do  well  to  follow,  and  that  is,  to  go  no  further  than  the  Bible  will 
carry  them.  The  war  of  parties  and  factions,  the  continual  struggle  of  political 
leaders,  the  various  questions  of  constitutional  casuistry,  are  subjects  which  lie 
beyond  this  boundary,  and  with  which  they  would  do  well  not  to  embroil  them- 
selves.    The  servant  of  the  Lord  is  exhorted  '  not  to  strive,'  but  '  to  cut  off  occasion 

•  In  order  that  the  propriety  of  Mr.  Hall's  reply  may  be  fairly  estimated,  it  has  been  thought  right 
to  reprint  the  original  article  that  called  it  forth.— Ed. 


96  REVIEW  OF  THE  APOLOGY  FOR 

from  them  which  desire  occr.sion  :'  and,  assuredly,  he  will  find  that  the  bare  dis- 
charge of  his  plain  duty  in  these  things  will  expose  him  to  sufficient  obloquy  and 
reproach. 

"  Entertaining  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  is  with  sorrow  that  we  observe  the 
republication,  under  his  own  immediate  sanction,  of  Mr.  Hall's  'Apology  for  the 
Freedom  of  the  Press.'  This  work  was  first  given  to  the  world  about  thirty  years 
ago,  and  has  been  long  since  forgotten,  or  remembered  only  as  one  of  the  sins  of 
its  author's  youth.  Since  its  disappearance  Mr.  H.  has  so  much  better  employed 
his  time  and  his  great  talents,  that  he  may  now  be  considered  as  standing  in  the 
very  first  rank  among  the  non-conformists  of  the  present  day.  And  is  it  not  a 
lamentable  thing  to  see  such  a  man  stepping  forward,  in  the  ripeness  of  his  years 
and  at  the  height  of  his  well-earned  reputation,  to  obtrude  himself  on  the  public  in 
the  degraded  character  of  a  violent  party-scribe  : — and  yet,  in  what  other  light  can 
we  consider  the  man  who,  in  so  uncalled-for  and  gratuitous  a  manner,  and  at  so 
comparatively  peaceful  a  period,  sends  into  the  world,  with  the  sanction  of  his 
name,  and  of  his  latest  con-ections,  a  new  edition  of  such  a  pamphlet  as  this  1 

"  He  indeed  states,  as  an  excuse  for  the  republication,  that  the  term  of  copyright 
being  expired,  it  was  no  longer  in  his  power  to  prevent  the  reprinting  of  this  work. 
The  law,  however,  is  not  so  ;  the  power  of  perpetuating  its  oblivion  lay  still  in  his 
hands.  But  had  he  even  been  correct  on  this  point,  where  was  the  necessity  for  his 
being  an  active  agent  in  this  reappearance  1 

"  To  characterize  the  tract  before  us  appropriately  we  need  only  observe,  that 
the  principal  topics  discussed  by  this  '  minister  of  the  gospeV  are,  the  right  of  public 
discussion,  the  propriety  of  political  associations,  farliamcntary  reform,  the  rights 
of  men,  the  character  of  dissenters,  the  present  discontents.  The  work  is  ex- 
tremely personal,  and  great  bitterness  is  shown  towards  the  late  Bishop  Horsley, 
Mr.  Burke,  and  Mr.  Pitt.  We  shall  not  imitate  Mr.  Hall's  example  by  entering 
into  a  discussion  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Pitt's  political  character ;  but  we  should 
have  hoped  that  the  reflection  of  his  undoubted  integrity  and  of  that  perfect  devotion 
to  his  country  which  led  him  to  sacrifice  even  life  itself*  in  its  ser\'ice,  might  have 
spared  him,  at  the  distance  of  sixteen  years  from  his  death,  a  new  volley  of  bitter 
reproach  from  one  whose  vocation  is  '  the  gospel  of  peace.'' 

"  As  to  the  character  of  Bishop  Horsley,  it  is  now  placed  far  beyond  the  reach 
of  his  adversaries  ;  and  the  Christian  world  will  know  how  to  appreciate  invectives 
against  such  a  man  from  one  who  is  at  the  same  time  the  eulogist  of  Priestley  and 
Price,  the  Socinians,  and  of  Mary  Wolstonecraft,  the  female  libertine  and  Deist. 

"  Looking,  then,  upon  this  work  as  one  of  which  a  critical  analysis  would  be  ill 
placed  in  the  pages  of  the  Christian  Guardian,  we  shall  conclude  with  a  specimen 
or  two  of  the  political  creed  of  Mr.  Hall,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  he  sup- 
ports it. 

"  He  is,  then,  as  far  as  professed  doctrine  can  make  him,  plainly  and  clearly  a 
radical  reformer.  He  pleads  for  'annual  parliaments,'  for  universal  suffrage,  for 
the  unfettered  publication  of  every  kind  of  blasphemy,  for  the  f.Tc/«svonof  the  rela- 
tives of  noblemen  from  the  House  of  Commons,  for  the  overthrow  of  all  ecclesiastical 
establishments,  and  for  '  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.'  In  what  part  of  the  sacred 
volume  he  has  discovered  the  least  sanction  for  any  one  of  these  notions  we  are  at 
a  loss  to  imagine. 

"  In  fact,  the  whole  pamphlet  is  an  argument  in  favour  of  the  supremacy  and 
infallibility  of  the  people,  and  of  the  necessity  of  paying  the  most  implicit  obedience 
to  the  least  expression  of  their  will.  Now,  could  these  notions  have  been  carried 
into  practice  at  the  time  they  were  written  (soon  after  the  Birmingham  riots), 
and  could  a  legislature  have  been  formed  upon  Mr.  H.'s  universal  suflrage  plan, 
the  necessary  and  inevitable  consequence  would  have  been,  that  as  the  feeling  of 
the  multitude  ran  violently  against  all  the  friends  of  the  French  revolution,  Mr.  H. 
and  most  of  his  fellow-labourers  and  admirers  would  have  been  silenced,  banished, 
or  hanged.  So  much  for  the  effects  which  might  be  expected  to  follow  Mr.  Hall's 
plan.  And  as  for  the  principles  upon  which  that  plan  is  founded,  we  find  him 
broadly  stating  in  the  latter  end  of  this  work,  with  admirable  consistency,  that 
'  calumny  and  reproach  are  usually  the  lot  of  distinguished  virtue,'  and  that  '  the 
vnpopularity  of  a  cause  is  rather  a  presumption  of  its  excellence.^     Now,  if  the  fact 


THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS.  97 

be  so,  it  cannot  be  for  the  good  of  the  people  that  this  perpetually  erroneous  crite- 
rion should  govern  the  affairs  of  the  state. 

"  Mr.  Hall  concludes  his  prefixed  advertisement  with  the  hope  '  that  the  reader 
will  recollect,  as  an  excuse  for  the  warmth  of  his  expression,  that  the  work  is  an 
eulogium  on  a  dead  friend;''  which  is  asserting,  in  other  words,  that  the  press  is 
enslaved  and  its  liberty  departed.  -And,  having  written  this  some  years  since,  he 
now  coolly  republishes  it,  after  witnessing  the  acquittals  of  Hone  and  Wooller,  and 
while  the  wretched  Carlile  is  braving  every  effort  that  can  be  made  to  stop  the 
torrent  of  blasphemy  which  has  so  long  issued  from  his  warehouse. 

"Again,  Mr.  H.  assured  us,  thirty  years  since,  that  we  had  then  ^ at  Icno-lh 
arrived  at  that  crisis  when  nothing  but  speedy  and  effectual  reform  could  save  us 
from  ruin.'  Now,  since  the  first  publication  of  this  prediction  we  have  maintained 
a  contest  of  long  duration  with  the  greatest  conqueror  of  modern  times,  and  have 
fairly  subdued  him.  We  have  immensely  augmented  the  extent  of  our  empire,  and 
increased  its  ratio  of  population.  We  have  tripled  our  commerce  and  our  revenue. 
We  have  improved,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  the  state  of  our  internal  population  by  the 
establishment  of  schools  and  the  increase  of  places  of  worship  ;  and  we  have  made 
some  progress  in  the  commencement  at  least  of  the  great  work  of  evangelizing  the 
whole  world. 

"And  after  all  this,  Mr.  Hall  comes  forward  with  much  admirable  simplicity  to 
tell  us  of  this  wonderful  prophecy  of  his,  delivered  only  the  third  part  of  a  century 
since,  that  without  immediate  reform  in  parliament,  ruin  was  then  inevitable.  Now, 
it  is  certain  that  this  same  immediate  reform  has  not  yet  taken  place,  although  one 
whole  generation  has  passed  away  since  the  promulgation  of  this  prediction.  Has 
the  dreadful  alternative  then  fallen  upon  us  1  Have  we  been  crushed  by  this 
inevitable  ruin  ? 

"  The  present  comparatively  prosperous  and  improving  circumstances  of  the 
kingdom  answers  No  I  to  this  question.  The  general  state  of  the  country,  the 
average  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  is  better,  and  not  worse,  than  at 
the  time  when  Mr.  Hall  first  published  this  direful  presage. 

"  If  there  be  any  exception  to  this  state  of  general  improvement,  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  depression  of  the  agricultural  interest  of  the  country.  But  we  are  told  by 
those  who  ought  to  be  judges  that  the  evils  which  threaten  these  classes  have  arisen 
from  the  want  of  sufficient  legislative  protection.  And  do  we  not  know  from  the 
conduct  of  the  mobs  of  1815  that  a  reformed  parliament,  a  universal  suffrage  par- 
liament, according  to  Mr.  Hall's  plan,  would  have  withheld  even  the  partial 
protection  which  has  hitherto  been  granted,  and  would  have  thereby  made  what  is 
now  distress  and  perplexity,  absolute  ruin  and  destruction]  So  much  for  the 
necessity  and  the  effects  of  reform. 

"  It  is  with  the  most  painful  feelings  that  we  are  thus  compelled  to  animadvert 
on  this  uncalled-for  and  altogether  unnecessary  republication.  We  repeat,  that 
the  general  principle  upon  wliich  we  disapprove  of  it  is,  that  a  minister  of  the  gospel 
will  always  best  consult  the  interests  of  his  flock  and  the  dignity  of  his  own  character 
by  abstaining  from  any  political  discussion  which  transgresses  the  bounds  prescribed 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Mr.  Hall  has  overstepped  these  limits,  and  has  plunged 
into  the  thickest  of  the  war  of  party  politics.  He  has  also  chosen,  we  apprehend, 
the  side  which  is  generally  found  in  most  direct  opposition  to  the  Scripture  injunc- 
tions of  peace,  quietness,  and  obedience.  And  as  the  weight  of  his  character  and 
the  authority  of  his  name  render  error  from  his  pen  trebly  dangerous,  we  have  felt 
only  the  more  imperatively  called  upon  to  enter  our  protest  against  the  principles 
which  he  has  endeavoured  to  lay  down,  and  to  umnask  the  sophistry  of  the  argu- 
ments by  which  he  has  attempted  to  support  them." 
Vol.  II.— G 


MR.   HALL'S    REPLY. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Leicester  Journal. 

Sir, 
A  VIOLENT  attack  on  my  character  having  appeared  in  your  paper 
a  few  weeks  since,  contained  in  an  extract  from  a  periodical  work 
entitled  the  Christian  Guardian,  I  rely  on  your  impartiality  for  per- 
mitting me  to  repel  the  accusation  through  the  same  medium.  If  the 
misrepresentations  which  I  have  to  complain  of  had  been  confined 
within  the  bounds  of  decency,  I  should  have  consulted  my  ease  by 
remaining  silent :  but  the  writer,  whoever  he  is,  has  availed  himself 
of  the  impunity  attached  to  anonymous  communications  so  unsparingly 
that  I  might  be  justly  charged,  not  only  with  a  criminal  indifference  to 
character,  but  with  being  accessary  to  the  delusion  of  the  public,  were 
1  to  make  no  reply. 

The  amount  of  my  offence  consists  in  uttering  a  new  edition  of  a 
political  pamphlet,  which  made  its  first  appearance  many  years  since, 
and  passed  through  several  editions.  This  writer  says  I  might  have 
suppressed  it ;  but  the  contrary  is  the  fact.  The  term  of  copyright  is 
Avell  known  to  extend  to  fourteen  years,  after  which  any  one  is  at 
liberty  to  republish  a  work  without  the  consent  of  the  author.  More 
than  that  time  had  elapsed  since  the  last  edition,  and  as  it  was  at  the 
option  of  any  bookseller  to  reprint  it,  so  I  was  assured  from  various 
quarters  that  whether  I  consented  or  not  it  would  certainly  be  repub- 
lished. The  only  alternative  that  remained  was,  either  to  suffer  it  to 
come  forth  in  a  form  perhaps  most  incorrect  and  mingled  with  foreign 
infusions,  or  to  publish  it  under  my  own  eye,  and  with  such  alterations 
and  corrections  as  the  author  might  deem  proper.  The  latter  was 
preferred,  and  for  this  a  torrent  of  invective  has  issued  from  the 
Christian  Guardian. 

It  certainly  is  very  unusual  for  a  writer  to  suppress  his  own  publica- 
tions, unless  he  has  recanted  the  principles  they  contain.  To  perse- 
vere in  doing  so  naturally  exposes  him  to  the  suspicion  either  that  he 
has  renounced  his  former  opinions  or  that  he  is  afraid  to  avow  them : 
but  neither  of  these  situations  is  mine.  I  have  changed  no  principle 
and  I  feel  no  fear.  Why  then  should  I  act  in  such  a  manner  as  must 
render  me  perpetually  liable  to  either  of  these  imputations  ?  For  a 
considerable  time,  indeed,  after  loud  and  repeated  importunitiesj  I 


MR.  HALL'S  REPLY  TO  THE  REVIEW.  gg 

declined  a  compliance  with  the  wishes  expressed  for  republication, 
from  a  sincere  reluctance  to  engage  in  political  controversy.  By  one 
party,  in  the  mean  while,  it  was  my  fortune  to  be  so  unequivocally 
claimed  as  a  convert,  and  by  the  other  so  assailed  with  reproaches  as 
an  apostate,  that  I  was  convinced  by  experience  there  was  no  other 
way  of  putting  an  end  to  the  misrepresentations  of  both  but  to  repub- 
lish the  original  pamphlet.  Had  I  never  written  it,  the  same  motives 
which  made  me  reluctant  to  reprint  might  probably  have  prevented 
my  writing  it ;  but  since  there  is  not  a  principle  in  it  which  I  can  con- 
scientiously retract,  and  my  silence  has  occasioned  numerous  mis- 
representations and  mistakes,  the  fair  and  manly  part  was  doubtless 
to  republish  it.  An  ingenuous  mind  is  not  less  ashamed  of  receiving 
praises  it  is  conscious  it  has  not  deserved,  than  indignant  at  re- 
proaches which  are  not  merited- 

But  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  it  seems,  is  on  no  occasion  to  meddle 
with  party  politics.  How  exactly  this  maxim  was  adhered  to  at  the 
commencement  of  the  late  war,  when  military  banners  were  conse- 
crated, and  the  people  everywhere  summoned  to  arras 

"  By  pulpit,  drum  ecclesiastic, 
Beat  with  fist  instead  of  a  stick," 

must  be  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  my  readers. 

The  men  who  in  the  garb  of  clergymen  bustle  at  electioneering 
meetings,  forsooth,  are  not  really  such,  but  merely  assume  the  dis- 
guise of  that  holy  order,  since  it  would  be  imcandid  to  suppose  they 
can  so  universally  lose  sight  of  what  is  befitting  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  The  venerable  bench  of  bishops  who  sit  in  the  House  of 
Lords  either  attend  in  silent  pomp  without  taking  any  part  in  the 
deliberations,  or  they  violate  the  character  of  ininisters  of  the  gospel. 
We  must  have  been  grossly  imposed  upon  by  the  public  prints,  which 
informed  us  of  the  clergy  of  a  whole  archdeaconry,  or  diocess,  meet- 
ing to  petition  parliament  against  the  Catholic  claims,  since  they  could 
never,  with  one  consent,  depart  so  far  from  the  decorum  of  ministers 
of  the  gospel ! 

The  plain  state  of  the  case  is,  not  that  the  writer  is  offended  at 
my  meddhng  with  politics,  but  that  I  have  meddled  on  the  wrong  side. 
Had  the  same  mediocrity  of  talent  been  exerted  in  eulogizing  the 
measures  of  ministers,  his  greetings  would  have  been  as  loud  as  his 
invective  is  bitter.  But  it  was  exerted  to  expose  public  abuses,  to 
urge  the  necessity  of  reform,  and  lay  open  the  tergiversation  of  the 
heaven-born  minister  and  Sunday  duellist,  who,  after  devoting  the  day 
of  rest  to  deeds  of  blood,  has  by  a  strange  fatahty  obtained  a  sort  of 
political  beatification.     Ilinc  illcn  lachrymoi ! 

Another  head  of  accusation  is,  that  I  have  censured  the  character 
of  Bishop  Horsley,  whose  character,  the  reviewer  tells  us,  "is  far 
removed  beyond  my  attack,  while  I  have  eulogized  Dr.  Price  and  Dr. 
Priestley,  Socinians."  To  this  it  is  sufficient  to  reply  that  Dr.  Price 
was  not  a  Socinian,  but  an  Arian ;  he  wrote  professedly  in  confutation 
of  socinianism ;  and  though  I  disapprove  of  his  religious  principles,  I 

G2 


100  MR.  HALL'S  REPLY 

feel  no  hesitation  in  affirming,  in  spite  of  the  frantic  and  unprincipled 
abuse  of  Burke,  that  a  more  ardent  and  enlightened  friend  of  his 
country  never  lived  than  that  venerable  patriarch  of  freedom.  Such 
were  the  sentiments  of  the  worshipful  corporation  of  London,  who  in 
token  of  their  esteem  presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in  a 
golden  box ;  such  was  the  judgment  of  Mr.  Pitt,  who  long  professed 
himself  his  admirer,  and  condescended  to  seek  his  advice  on  questions 
of  finance.  Dr.  Priestley,  it  is  acknowledged,  was  a  Socinian  ;  but  it 
was  not  under  that  character  that  he  was  eulogized.  It  was  as  the 
friend  of  liberty,  the  victim  of  intolerance,  and  the  author  of  some  of 
the  most  brilliant  philosophical  discoveries  of  modern  times,  for  which 
he  was  celebrated  throughout  Europe,  and  his  name  enrolled  as  a 
member  of  the  most  illustrious  institutions  ;  so  that  my  eulogy  was  but 
a  mere  feeble  echo  of  the  applause  which  resounded  from  every 
civilized  portion  of  the  globe.  And  are  we  suddenly  fallen  back  into 
the  darkness  and  ignorance  of  the  middle  ages,  during  which  the  spell 
of  a  stupid  and  unfeeling  uniformity  bound  the  nations  in  iron  slumbers, 
that  it  has  become  a  crime  to  praise  a  man  for  talents  which  the  whole 
world  admired,  and  for  virtues  which  his  enemies  confessed,  merely 
because  his  religious  creed  was  erroneous  ?  If  any  thing  could  sink 
orthodoxy  into  contempt,  it  would  be  its  association  with  such  gothic 
barbarity  of  sentiment,  such  reptile  meanness.  What  renders  the 
wretched  bigotry  of  the  reviewer  the  more  conspicuous  is,  that  the 
eulogy  in  question  was  written  almost  immediately  after  the  Birming- 
ham riots,  that  disgraceful  ebullition  of  popular  phrensy,  during  which 
a  ferocious  mob  tracked  his  steps  like  bloodhounds,  demolished  his 
house,  destroyed  his  library  and  apparatus,  and  advancing  from  thence 
to  the  destruction  of  private  and  public  buildings,  filled  the  whole 
town  and  vicinity  with  terror  and  dismay.  What  sort  of  a  Christian 
Guardian  the  reviewer  would  have  proved  on  that  occasion  may  be 
easily  inferred  from  his  passing  over  these  atrocities  in  silence,  while 
he  discharges  his  malice  on  their  unoffending  victim. 

The  maxim  De  mortuis  nil  nisi  bonum  admits  of  exceptions ;  and 
as  I  am  vilified  for  censuring  Bishop  Horsley,  whose  character,  it  is 
affirmed,  "is  far  removed  beyond  my  attack,"  while  I  praised  Priestley, 
the  Socinian,  justice  compels  me  to  remark  (what  the  reviewer  prob- 
ably knows  well  enough),  that  in  the  virtues  of  private  life  Dr.  Priestley 
was  as  much  superior  to  his  antagonist  as  he  was  inferior  in  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  speculative  theology. 

From  the  principles  avowed  in  the  Apology,  this  writer  asserts  that 
it  is  evident  I  am  to  be  classed  to  all  intents  and  purposes  with  radical 
reformers.  This  charge  is  grounded  on  my  recommendation  of  annual 
parliaments  and  universal  suffrage.  Now  he  either  knows  that  Mr. 
Pitt,  in  conjunction  with  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  presided  at  public 
meetings  in  which  annual  parliaments  and  the  extension  of  the  right 
of  suffrage  to  all  householders  were  recommended,  or  he  does  not. 
If  he  pleads  ignorance  of  the  fact,  Avhat  presumption  is  it  for  a  man  so 
uninformed  to  write  upon  the  subject !  If  he  knows  it,  let  me  ask, 
was  Mr.  Pitt  a  radical  reformer  at  the  time  he  recommended  those 


TO  THE  REVIEW. 


101 


measures  ?  If  he  was,  I  plead  guilty  to  the  charge  ;  but  if  he  was  not, 
the  recommendation  of  a  similar  plan  is  no  evidence  of  my  being  a 
radical.  For  my  own  part,  I  feel  the  utmost  contempt  of  the  charge 
of  radicalism.  A  radical  reformer,  if  we  attend  to  the  import  of  words, 
is  one  that  goes  to  the  root  of  the  evil,  that  proposes,  not  merely  to 
palliate,  but  to  extirpate  it.  And  what  is  that  reform  worth  that  pro- 
poses less  ?  He  who  labours  imder  an  inveterate  malady  wishes  for 
radical  cure :  he  would  put  little  value  on  a  remedy  that  should  miti- 
gate the  pain  without  reaching  the  source  of  the  disorder.  If  the 
appellation  of  radical  reformer  is  intended  to  denote  a  revolutionist,  it 
is  most  absurdly  applied  to  the  advocate  of  annual  parliaments  and 
universal  suffrage,  because  the  first  of  these  measures  is  merely  a 
revival  of  the  ancient  practice,  and  the  latter  most  consonant  to  the 
genius  of  a  free  constitution,  which  presupposes  the  extension  of  the 
elective  franchise  to  all  who  can  be  presumed  to  have  a  will  of  their 
own  :  the  exercise  of  this  right,  coupled  with  the  practice  of  voting  by 
ballot,  would  in  my  humble  opinion  be  the  best  expedient  for  securing 
the  freedom  and  tranquillity  of  elections.  Be  this  as  it  may,  a  sincere 
proposal  of  reform  must  differ  essentially  from  the  proposal  of  a  revo- 
lution. If  by  styling  me  a  radical  reformer  this  writer  intends  to  im- 
pute revolutionary  views,  I  say  it  is  a  calumny  and  a  falsehood ;  and 
I  challenge  him  to  produce  a  single  sentence  in  my  publications  which 
sustains  such  a  charge,  or  which  convicts  me  of  hostility  to  the  exist- 
ing order  of  things,  as  consisting  of  king,  lords,  and  commons.  But 
if  he  means  that  I  am  for  such  a  reform  as  will  cut  up  corruption  by 
the  roots,  I  feel  no  inclination  to  disavow  it.  He  wishes,  it  is  evident, 
to  fix  the  impression  that  I  am  hostile  to  the  regal  branch  of  the  con- 
stitution, but  shrinks  from  making  the  assertion,  and  endeavours  to 
convey  the  venom  of  his  accusations  through  the  subtle  vehicle  of  a 
dark  and  ambiguous  phraseology. 

For  what  purpose  but  that  of  exciting  hatred  and  horror  he  has 
thought  fit  to  couple  my  name  with  the  mention  of  Hone  and  Carlile 
it  is  not  easy  to  conjecture.  The  blasphemy  of  their  publications  is 
quite  as  disgusting  to  me  as  to  himself;  but  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive 
the  justness  of  that  reasoning  which  would  infer  that  no  political  cor- 
ruption however  enonnous,  no  maladministration  however  flagrant, 
must  be  exposed  to  animadversion  until  these  men  have  ceased  to 
exhale  their  impieties.  Let  this  principle  once  be  admitted,  and  we 
shall  never  want  Hones  and  Carliles  in  abundance  ;  to  remove  a  shield 
so  easily  purchased  and  so  effectual  in  the  protection  of  every  abuse 
might  be  deemed  an  infatuation. 

"  He  (the  author  of  the  Apology)  pleads,"  says  the  reviewer,  "  for 
annual  parliaments,  for  universal  suffrage,  for  the  unfettered  pubhcation 
of  every  kind  of  blasphemy,  for  the  exclusion  of  the  relatives  of  noble- 
men from  the  House  of  Commons,  for  the  overthrow  of  all  ecclesiastical 
establishments,  and  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  In  what  part 
of  the  sacred  volume,"  he  adds,  "  he  has  discovered  the  least  sanction 
for  any  one  of  these  notions  we  are  at  a  loss  to  imagine."  The  fatuity 
of  this  remark  baffles  all  description.     For  why  may  I  not  retort  his 


102  MR.  HALL'S  REPLY 

own  language,  and  say,  This  author  pleads  for  septennial  parliaments, 
for  limited  suffrage,  for  the  admission  of  the  relatives  of  noblemen  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  for  the  support  of  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments ;  but  in  what  part  of  the  sacred  volume  he  finds  the  least  sanction 
for  them  I  am  at  a  loss  to  imagine?  But  when  did  I  plead  for  the 
publication  of  blasphemy,  fettered  or  unfettered  1  To  plead  for  the 
liberty  of  divulging  speculative  opinions  is  one  thing,  and  to  assert  the 
right  of  uttering  blasphemy  is  another.  For  blasphemy,  which  is  the 
speaking  contumeliously  of  God,  is  not  a  speculative  error ;  it  is  an 
overt  act ;  a  crime  which  no  state  should  tolerate.  In  relation  to  the 
question  of  ecclesiastical  establishments,  since  I  am  challenged  to  pro- 
duce any  passage  from  Scripture  which  sanctions  my  opposition  to  them, 
I  beg  leave  to  refer  him  to  our  Lord's  declnratinn.  Every  plant  which 
my  heavenly  Father  has  not  planted  shall  be  rooted  up.  That  national 
churches,  or  exclusive  establishments  of  religion  by  the  civil  magistrate, 
are  one  of  these  plants  will  not  be  denied  ;  since  nothing  of  that  kind, 
it  is  universally  allowed,  existed  during  the  three  first  and  purest  ages 
of  Christianity,  and  not  being  authorized  by  the  great  Head  of  the 
church,  it  must,  if  we  believe  him,  be  rooted  up.  I  have  used  the  term 
great  Head  of  the  church,  by  way  of  distinction  from  that  little  head* 
which  the  Church  of  England  has  invented,  and  on  which,  whether  it 
be  a  beauty  or  a  deformity  in  the  body  of  Christ,  the  Scriptures  are 
certainly  as  silent  as  on  universal  suffrage  and  annual  parliaments. 

It  may  not  be  improper  in  this  place  to  notice  a  curious  argument 
which  the  reviewer  adduces  in  support  of  his  darling  tenet  of  passive 
obedience  and  non-resistance,  from  the  prevailing  and  inherent  depravity 
of  human  nature.  He  reminds  us  that  mankind  are  represented  in 
Scripture  as  "  alike  depraved  and  unruly,"  and  from  these  premises, 
attempts  to  enforce  that  interpretation  of  Scripture  which  would  annihi- 
late the  liberties  of  mankind,  and  reduce  them,  without  "  restriction  or 
reservation,"  to  a  passive  submission  to  their  political  superiors.  On 
another  occasion  I  have  sufficiently  rescued  the  sentiments  of  the 
inspired  writers  from  such  a  detestable  imputation,  by  showing  that 
their  design  is  merely  to  inculcate  the  general  duty  of  obedience  to 
government,  as  the  ordinance  of  God,  while  they  leave  the  just  bounds 
of  authority,  and  the  limits  of  obedience,  to  the  regulation  and  adjust- 
ment of  reason  and  experience ;  a  task  to  which  they  are  perfectly 
adequate.  But  how  does  the  depravity  of  human  nature  evince  the 
necessity  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance,  unless  it  is  contended 
that  the  ruling  part  of  mankind  are  not  depraved  ?  That  mankind  are 
naturally  "  depraved  and  unruly"  affords  a  good  argument  for  the 
existence  of  government  itself;  but  since  they  are  "  alike  depraved  and 
unruly,"  since  governors  partake  of  the  same  corruption  as  the  people, 
aggravated  too  often  by  the  possession  of  power,  which  inflames  the 
passions  and  corrupts  the  heart,  to  allege  the  depravity  of  human  nature 
as  a  reason  for  submission  to  arbitrary  power,  involves  the  absurdity 
of  supposing  that  the  cure  of  one  degree  of  wickedness  is  to  be  obtained 

*  I  know  of  no  passage  in  the  works  of  our  author  which  presents,  in  my  judgment,  so  gross  a 
violation  of  good  taste  as  is  here  exhibited. — Eo. 


TO  THE  REVIEW. 


103 


by  affording  unlimited  license  to  a  greater.  Retrace  the  annals  of  all 
times  and  nations,  and  you  will  find  in  the  triumph  of  despotism  the 
triumph  of  wickedness  ;  you  will  find  that  men  have  been  virtuous, 
noble,  and  disinterested,  just  in  proportion  as  they  have  been  free. 

The  reviewer  affects  to  triumph  over  me,  on  account  of  the  supposed 
failure  of  the  prediction,  that  ruin  would  speedily  ensue  unless  pre- 
vented by  reform.  "  Has  this  dreadful  alternative,"  he  asks,  "  fallen 
upon  us  ?  The  present  comparatively  prosperous  and  improving 
circumstances  of  the  kingdom,  answers  No.  The  general  state  of  the 
country,  the  average  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  is  better 
and  not  worse  than  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Hall  first  published  this 
direful  presage." 

1  am  at  a  loss  to  reply  in  suitable  terms  to  a  writer  who  seems  to 
glory  in  setting  truth  at  defiance.  Let  me  ask  the  reader,  whether  he 
thinks  there  is  a  single  person  to  be  found  in  the  nation  who  really 
believes  our  condition  as  a  people  is  improved  within  the  last  thirty 
years  ?  Where  is  this  improvement  to  be  found  1  Is  it  in  the  augmenta- 
tion of  the  national  debt  to  three  times  its  former  amount:  in  the 
accumulated  weight  of  taxes  ;  in  the  increase  of  the  poor-rates ;  in 
the  depression  of  land  to  less  than  one-half  of  its  former  value  ;  in  the 
ruin  of  the  agricultural  interest ;  in  the  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  farmers  who  are  distrained  for  rent,  and  they  and  their  families 
reduced  to  beggary?  Has  this  writer  already  forgotten  the  recent 
distress  of  the  manufacturing  class,  who,  from  failure  of  employment 
and  the  depression  of  wages,  were  plunged  into  despair,  while  numbers 
of  them  quitted  their  homes,  and  sought  a  precarious  and  scanty  relief, 
by  dragging  through  the  country  loaded  wagons  and  carts,  like  beasts 
of  burden  ?  Is  it  in  the  rapid  and  portentous  multiplication  of  crimes, 
by  which  our  prisons  are  glutted  with  malefactors  ?  If  these  are 
indications  of  increasing  prosperity,  we  may  justly  adopt  the  language 
of  the  liturgy,  from  sucli  prosperity,  "  Good  Lord,  deliver  us." 

To  do  the  writer  justice,  he  has  the  grace  to  admit  something  like 
an  exception  respecting  the  agricultural  interest,  though  he  expresses 
himself  with  the  diffidence  becoming  the  solution  of  so  diflicult  a 
problem.  "  If  any  exception,"  he  says,  "  can  be  found,  it  is  in  the 
agricultural  interest ;"  but  he  adds,  "  If  those  are  to  be  believed  who 
ought  to  be  judges,  this  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  want  of  legal  protection." 
Now,  two  corn-bills  have  been  passed  of  late  years  for  the  express 
protection  of  the  agriculturist ;  the  last  of  these  in  open  contempt  of 
the  sentiments  and  wishes  of  the  people.  Previously  to  the  passing 
of  these  bills,  agriculture  was  in  a  comparatively  flourishing  state ; 
since  these  laws  were  enacted  it  has  experienced  a  depression  beyond 
all  example ;  and  in  the  face  of  these  facts,  this  writer  has  the  assur- 
ance to  inform  us,  that  in  the  opinion  of  those  who  ought  to  be  judges, 
the  evil  is  wholly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  want  of  legal  protection.  But 
who  are  these  highly-privileged  mortals,  Avho  are  to  be  implicitly 
believed  because  "they  ought  to  be  judges?"  If  there  is  any  class 
of  persons  whose  opinion  on  these  questions  is  entitled  to  deference 
and  respect,  they  are  undoubtedly  political  economists,  men  who  have 


104  MR.  HALL'S  REPLY 

made  the  sources  of  national  wealth  the  principal  subject  of  their 
inquiry :  and  where  will  he  find  one,  from  Adam  Smith  to  the  present 
time,  who  has  not  reprobated  the  interference  of  legislature  with  the 
price  of  corn  1  To  say  notliing  of  the  reasoning  of  that  great  philoso- 
pher, which  is  unanswerable,  common  sense  Avill  teach  us,  that  laws 
to  raise  the  price  of  produce  are  unjust  and  oppressive  taxes  upon  the 
whole  community,  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  a  part.  There  is  a 
description  of  men  who  are  accustomed  systematically  to  yield  up 
their  understandings  to  others,  who  in  their  view  "  ought  to  be  judges  :" 
it  is  needless  to  add,  that  the  present  writer  is  evidently  of  this  servum 
pecus,  this  tame  and  passive  herd ;  and  that  his  knowledge  of  the 
subject  is  just  what  might  be  expected  from  one  who  thinks  by  proxy. 
These  men,  forgetting,  or  affecting  to  forget,  that  the  exercise  of  power, 
in  whatever  hands  it  is  placed,  will  infallibly  degenerate  into  tyranny 
unless  it  is  carefully  watched,  make  it  their  whole  business  to  screen 
its  abuses ;  to  suppress  inquiry,  stifle  complaint,  and  inculcate  on  the 
people  as  their  duty  a  quiet  and  implicit  submission  to  the  direction 
of  those  who,  to  speak  in  the  vocabulary  of  slaves, "  ought  to  be  judges." 
These  are  the  men  by  whom  the  constitution  is  endangered ;  these  the 
maxims  by  which  free  states  are  enslaved.  If  that  freedom  which  is 
the  birthright  of  Britons  is  destined  to  go  down  to  succeeding  genera- 
tions, it  must  result  from  the  prevalence  of  an  opposite  spirit ;  a  lofty 
enthusiasm,  an  ardent  attachment  to  liberty,  and  an  incessant  jealousy 
of  the  tendency  of  power  to  enlarge  its  pretensions  and  extend  its 
encroachments. 

The  reviewer  asserts,  that  "  my  whole  pamphlet  is  an  argument  in 
favour  of  the  supremacy  and  infallibility  of  the  people,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  paying  an  implicit  obedience  to  the  least  expression  of 
their  will." 

This,  I  must  assure  the  reader,  is  a  gross  and  wilful  misrepresenta- 
tion. In  no  part  of  the  pamphlet  have  I  pleaded  for  any  such  doctrine. 
All  that  I  have  asserted  is,  that  in  proportion  as  the  House  of  Commons 
is  in  unison  with  the  people,  animated  by  the  same  sympathies,  and 
affected  by  the  same  interests,  in  the  same  proportion  will  it  accom- 
plish the  design  of  its  functions  as  a  representative  assembly  ;  and  that 
a  reform  is  absolutely  necessary,  in  order  to  restore  it  to  that  conjunc- 
tion of  interests  and  of  feelings  on  which  its  utility,  as  the  popular 
branch  of  the  legislature,  depends.  The  necessity  of  such  a  union 
between  the  people  and  their  representatives  is  manifest  from  the  very 
meaning  of  the  terms,  for  it  were  quite  needless  for  them  to  be  at  the 
pains  of  choosing  men  who,  in  consequence  of  a  foreign  bias,  are 
prepared  to  contradict  their  sentiments  and  neglect  their  interests.  A 
House  of  Commons  which  should  chiefly  consist  of  court  sycophants 
and  tyrants  would  exhibit  nothing  more  than  the  mockery  of  repre- 
sentation. By  artfully  transferring  what  I  have  said  of  one  branch 
of  the  legislature  to  the  ivhole,  and  presenting  even  that  in  an  exagge- 
rated form,  he  has  represented  me  as  reducing  the  government  to  such 
an  immediate  and  incessant  dependence  on  the  popular  will  as  never 


TO  THE  REVIEW. 


105 


entered  my  thoughts,  and  would  be  utterly  incompatible  with  the  genius 
of  a  limited  monarchy. 

Having  already  trespassed  on  the  patience  of  my  readers,  I  shall 
close  with  one  remark  on  the  eulogium  pronounced  by  the  reviewer 
on  the  character  of  the  late  Mr.  Pitt.  He  appears  to  be  extremely 
shocked  with  the  freedom  and  severity  of  my  strictures  on  his  conduct, 
as  implying  a  forgetfulness  of  his  singular  disinterestedness,  and  his 
"  perfect  devotion  to  his  country."  As  this  has  become  a  favourite 
topic  with  the  admirers  of  that  celebrated  minister,  it  is  necessary  to 
remind  them  that  there  are  other  vices  besides  the  love  of  money,  and 
other  virtues  besides  that  of  dying  poor.  It  may  be  easily  admitted, 
that  the  ambition  which  grasps  at  the  direction  of  an  empire,  and  the 
pitiful  passion  for  accumulation,  were  not  the  inmates  of  the  same 
bosom.  In  minds  of  a  superior  order,  ambition,  like  Aaron's  rod,  is 
quite  sufficient  to  swallow  up  the  whole  fry  of  petty  propensities.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  wish  to  withhold  an  atom  of  the  praise  justly  due  to 
him.  That  he  devoted  much  time  and  a  considerable  portion  of  talent 
to  the  affairs  of  his  country  is  undeniable.  The  evils  which  he  has 
brought  upon  us  were  not  the  production  of  an  ordinary  mind,  nor  the 
work  of  a  day,  nor  done  in  sport ;  but  what  I  contend  for  is,  that,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  unparalleled  apostacy,  his  devotion  to  his  country, 
and,  what  was  worse,  its  devotion  to  him,  have  been  the  source  of  more 
calamity  to  this  nation  than  any  other  event  that  has  befallen  it ;  and 
that  the  memory  of  Pitt  will  be  identified  in  the  recollection  of  posterity 
with  accumulated  taxes,  augmented  debt,  extended  pauperism,  a  de- 
basement and  prostration  of  the  public  mind,  and  a  system  of  policy, 
not  only  hostile  to  the  cause  of  liberty  at  home,  but  prompt  and  eager 
to  detect  and  tread  out  every  spark  of  liberty  in  Europe ;  in  a  word, 
with  all  those  images  of  terror  and  destruction  which  the  name  imports. 
The  enthusiasm  with  which  his  character  is  regarded  by  a  numerous 
class  of  his  countrymen  will  be  ascribed,  by  a  distant  age,  to  that 
mysterious  infatuation  which,  in  the  inscrutable  counsels  of  Heaven,  is 
the  usual,  the  destined  precursor  of  the  fall  of  states. 

I  am.  Sir, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Robert  Hall. 
Leicester,  Feb.  5,  1822. 


NOTE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 


Some  excellent  persons  who  did  not  know  Mr.  Hall  often  express  great 
concern  that  so  good  a  man  should  have  suffered  his  thoughts  to  be  so  much 
engrossed  in  politics  as  they  suppose  must  have  been  the  case.  The  truth, 
however,  is,  that  few  men  gave  themselves  less  to  political  matters  than  Mr.  Hall. 
At  the  deeply-interesting  period  in  which  he  wrote  his  political  tracts,  the  whole 
world  was  absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  political  events  and  the  discussion  of 
political  principles.  Among  the  disputants  of  the  two  great  parties  into  which  this 
country  was  divided,  clergymen  and  other  ministers  took  a  most  active  part,  and 
the  class  denominated  evangelical  were  by  no  means  the  least  active.  Some  of 
the  most  eminent  of  them,  indeed,  engaged  in  that  sad  and  then  frequent  profana- 
tion of  holy  places  and  things,  the  consecration  of  the  colours  of  a  volunteer  corps 
in  a  parish  church ;  and  one  even  put  on  a  military  cockade  in  order  to  incite  his 
parishioners  to  come  forward  in  the  public  cause.  The  genuine  principles  of  our 
admirable  constitution  were  thought  by  many  to  be  in  imminent  peril ;  yet  all  who 
wrote  in  their  defence  were  exposed  to  obloquy.  A  learned  prelate  asserted  in 
the  House  of  Lords  that  "  the  people  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  laws  but  to  obey 
them,"  and  his  sentiment  was  loudly  applauded.  In  a  kindred  spirit,  during  the 
trials  of  Muir  and  Palmer  for  "  leasing-making,"  or  sedition,  in  Scotland,  one  of  the 
lords  of  justiciary  declared  that  "?io  7nan  had  a  right  to  speak  of  the  constitution 
unless  he  possessed  landed  property ;"  and  another  affirmed,  that  "  since  the  abolition 
of  TORTURE  there  was  no  adequate  punishment  for  sedition."  In  such  a  season  of 
violent  excitement,  when  upright  men  of  every  shade  of  opinion  thought  the  most 
valuable  principles  at  stake,  no  wonder  that  heats  and  animosities  prevailed,  and 
that  all  expressed  themselves  with  vehemence, — often  with  acerbity.  Mr.  Hall, 
then  under  thirty  years  of  age,  was  of  too  ardent  and  generous  a  spirit  to  be 
quiescent  in  that  signal  crisis  of  public  affairs.  He  discharged  what,  in  the 
exigency,  appeared  to  him  an  imperious  duty,  and  then  remained  silent,  until 
after  an  interval  of  many  years,  at  the  entreaty  of  his  friends,  he  broke  the  silence 
in  a  brief  effort  of  self-defence  against  anonymous  misrepresentation.  For  some 
years,  indeed,  so  great  was  his  indifference  to  political  concerns  that  he  scarcely 
ever  read  a  newspaper,  or  did  more  in  conversation  than  advert  for  a  moment, 
if  at  all,  to  public  measures.  His  political  principles,  however,  remained  the 
same  through  life,  with  those  simple  modifications  which  the  lapse  of  time  and 
the  occurrence  of  new  events  were  calculated  to  produce  in  the  breast  of  a 
considerate  man.  Though  he  thought  them  important,  he  uniformly  regarded 
them  as  subordinate  to  others.  He  cherished  with  delight  the  anticipations  of  a 
new  and  better  order  of  things  among  mankind ;  but  he  looked  mainly  for  the 
realizing  of  his  hopes  to  the  operation  of  a  higher  class  of  principles  than  the 
politics  of  this  world  can  supply, — principles  of  heavenly  origin,  which,  flowing 
from  religious  truth,  and  acting  at  once  upon  the  spiritual  part  of  our  nature, 
change  and  improve  the  mass  of  society  by  transforming  the  characters  of  the 
men  who  compose  it. 

Some  of  the  following  pieces  yield  ample  proofs  of  the  prevalence  of  these 
sentiments. 

That  there  are  occasions  on  which  pious  men  not  only  may,  but  must,  if  they 
act  fully  on  scriptural  principles,  censure  public  men  and  public  measures,  has 
been  clearly  shown  by  one  of  the  gentlest  as  well  as  most  excellent  of  men — 
Granville  Sharp — in  his  essay  on  "  The  Laic  qf  Passive  Obedience." 


! 


AN    ADDRESS 

TO   THE   PUBLIC, 

ON    AN    IMPORTANT    SUBJECT,'C0NNECTED    WITH 

THE    RENEWAL    OF    THE    CHARTER 

OF    THE 

EAST   INDIA   COMPANY. 


[Published  in  1813.] 


AN     ADDRESS. 


As  the  subject  of  the  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the  East  India 
Company  is  shortly  to  come  before  parUament  with  a  view  to  a  final 
decision,  it  is  presumed  that  it  will  not  be  deemed  impertinent  to 
invite  the  attention  of  the  legislature  to  a  particular  connected  with 
that  subject  which  is  judged  of  high  importance.  The  point  to  which 
we  refer  respects  the  propriety  of  inserting  a  clause  in  the  new  charter 
authorizing  tlie  peaceable  dissemination  of  Christian  principles  in 
India.*  For  want  of  such  a  provision,  the  missionaries  who  have 
lately  visited  that  country  have  been  under  the  necessity  of  going 
there  by  the  circuitous  route  of  America,  besides  meeting  with  con- 
siderable obstructions  in  their  attempts  to  settle,  and  being  exposed  to 
much  vexation  and  interruption  in  their  quiet  efforts  to  plant  the 
Christian  faith.  It  must  surely  be  considered  as  an  extraordinary 
fact,  that  in  a  country  under  the  government  of  a  people  professing 
Ciiristianity,  that  religion  should  be  the  only  one  that  is  discounte- 
nanced and  suppressed. 

That  the  most  complete  toleration  should  be  extended  to  the  various 
modes  of  belief  prevailing  in  those  remote  dependencies  of  our  empire, 
and  that  none  of  the  inhabitants  should  be  subjected  to  the  slightest 
inconvenience  on  account  of  their  adherence  to  the  religious  system 
of  their  forefathers,  is  readily  admitted ;  nor  would  any  event  give 
more  serious  concern  to  the  writer  of  this  address,  than  an  interference 
with  that  right  of  private  judgment  which  he  deems  an  inalienable 
prerogative  of  human  nature.     But  for  a  Christian  nation  to  give  a 

*  The  object  for  which  Mr.  Hall  and  many  other  pious  men  so  earnestly  pleaded,  was  accom- 
plished, at  least  as  to  its  practical  results ;  though  there  is  still  room  to  interpose  obstructions  if  men 
in  power  should  be  inclined  to  present  them.  The  act  which  passed  in  1813,  "  for  continuing  in 
the  East  India  Company  (or  a  farther  term  the  possession  of  the  British  territories  in  India,"  contains 
four  clauses  (viz.  33,  34,  35,  36)  which  relate  to  "persons  desirous  of  going  to  India  for  the  purpose 
of  promoting  the  religious  and  moral  improvement  of  the  natives."  The  nature  of  this  part  of  the 
enactment  will  be  understood  from  the  subjoined  brief  official  abstract : — 

"If  the  court  of  directors  think  fit  to  refuse  the  applications  for  permission  made  in  behalf  of  such 
persons,  they  are  to  transmit  the  applications  to  the  board  of  commissioners,  who,  if  they  see  no 
valid  objection  to  granting  the  permission,  may  authorize  the  said  persons  to  proceed  to  any  of  the 
company's  principal  settlements,  provided  with  a  certificate  of  sanction  from  the  directors.  The 
court  of  director.'^,  however,  may  make  representations  concerning  such  persons  to  the  board  of  com- 
missioners ;  and  tliose  persons  on  arriving  in  the  East  Indies  are  to  be  subject  to  the  regulations 
of  the  local  governments.  Fmrther,  the  governments  in  India  may  declare  the  certificates  and 
licenses  of  such  persons  to  be  void,  if  they  shall  appear  by  their  conduct  to  have  forfeited  their 
claims  to  protection." 

Besides  these  clauses  there  are  others,  from  49  to  54  inclusive,  which  relate  to  a  "  church  estab- 
lishment in  India.  A  bishop  and  three  archdeacons  to  be  appointed;  their  salaries  are  specified  ; 
the  episcopal  jurisdiction  is  to  be  limited  by  letters-patent  from  the  king  ;  pensions  to  be  allowed 
after  fifteen  years'  service."  Of  the  bishops  who  have  been  appointed  since  the  passing  of  this  act, 
three,  viz.  Middleton,  Htbcr,  and  James,  have  been  already  brotight  by  the  climate  of  India  to  a 
premature  grave. — Ed. 


no  ADDRESS  IN  REFERENCE  TO 

decided  preference  to  polytheism  and  idolatry  by  prohibiting  the  dis- 
semination of  a  purer  faith,  and  thus  employ  its  powers  in  suppressing 
the  truth,  and  prolonging  the  existence  of  the  most  degrading  and 
deplorable  superstitions,  is  a  line  of  conduct  equally  repugnant  to  the 
dictates  of  religion  and  the  maxims  of  sound  policy.  To  oppose  by 
force  the  propagation  of  revealed  truth  from  any  worldly  considerations 
whatever  is  such  a  sacrifice  of  right  to  expediency  as  can  be  justified 
on  no  principles  but  what  will  lead  to  the  subversion  of  all  morality 
and  religion. 

If  Christianity  be  a  communication  from  heaven,  to  oppose  its  ex- 
tension is  to  fight  against  God ;  an  impiety  which,  under  every  possi- 
ble combination  of  circumstances,  must  expect  a  severe  rebuke ;  but 
the  guilt  of  which  is  inconceivably  aggravated  when  the  opposition 
proceeds  from  the  professors  of  that  very  religion.  We  have  no  exam- 
ple in  the  history  of  the  world  of  such  a  conduct ;  we  have  no  prece- 
dent of  a  people  prohibiting  the  propagation  of  their  own  faith ;  a 
species  of  intolerance  exposed,  not  only  to  the  objections  which  lie 
in  common  against  all  restraints  upon  conscience,  but  to  a  train  of 
absurdities  peculiar  to  itself,  at  the  same  time  that  it  imposes  a  char- 
acter of  meanness  on  the  ruling  powers,  by  the  virtual  confession  it 
includes  that  they  have  either  no  religion  or  a  religion  of  which  they 
are  ashamed.  As  the  equality  of  all  religions,  the  distinguishing  tenet 
of  deism,  is  alike  repugnant  to  the  dictates  of  reason  and  the  oracles 
of  truth,  so  it  is  ill  calculated  to  conciliate  the  esteem  of  eastern 
nations,  on  whom  it  can  have  no  other  effect  than  to  desecrate  the 
British  name  by  depriving  it  of  the  veneration  which  nature,  unso- 
phisticated by  impiety,  has  inseparably  connected  with  sentiments  of 
religious  belief.  Powerfully  impressed  as  they  are  with  religious 
principles  and  prejudices,  however  erroneous,  we  can  scarcely  adopt 
a  more  effectual  expedient  for  securing  their  contempt  and  abhorrence 
than  an  avowed  indifference  to  whatever  concerns  that  momentous 
subject. 

It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  no  persons  have  been  so  popular  in 
India  as  the  men  who  have  exerted  themselves  with  the  most  steady 
and  persevering  zeal  in  the  dissemination  of  Christian  principles ;  of 
which  we  have  a  striking  example  in  the  excellent  Schwartz,  for 
many  years  a  missionary  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  who  by  his  wise 
and  benevolent  conduct  rendered  on  various  occasions  the  most  essen- 
tial service  to  the  British  interests,  and  became  the  object  of  the  enthu- 
siastic attachment  of  the  natives.* 

The  attempt  to  propagate  Christianity  in  India  is  not  a  new  experi- 
ment ;  it  has  been  now  tried  for  more  than  a  century :  it  received  the 
warmest  support  of  George  the  First,  of  illustrious  memory,  as  well  as 
of  the  then  archbishop  of  Canterbury;  and  in  the  hands  of  Ziegenbal- 
gius  and  his  successors  was  crowned  with  distinguished  success.! 
Similar  attempts  have  been  more  recently  made  in  Bengal  and  the 

*  See  the  Reports  of  the  Society  at  Bartlett's  Buildings,  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 
t  See  the  excellent  letters  from  his  majesty  and  the  archbishop,  addressed  to  Ziegenbalgius,  ia 
Buchanan's  Ecclesiastical  Researches 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  TO  INDIA,  HI 

adjacent  provinces  ;  and  several  Christian  societies  have  been  planted 
by  the  labours  of  missionaries  in  those  parts  of  India.  It  deserves 
particular  attention,  that  no  inconvenience,  not  even  the  slightest,  has 
arisen  from  these  enterprises ;  and  that  whatever  agitation  has  been 
witnessed  among  the  natives  at  different  times,  the  propagation  of 
Christianity  has  never  been  the  cause  or  even  the  pretext,  Wlien 
intelligence  of  the  insurrection  of  Vallore  reached  England,  there 
were  not  wanting  persons  who  endeavoured  to  ascribe  it  to  the 
jealousy  and  uneasiness  excited  by  the  efforts  of  missionaries ;  but 
no  attempt  could  be  more  unsuccessful,  since,  in  the  course  of  a  most 
accurate  investigation  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  that  event, 
we  have  it  on  the  authority  of  Lord  Teignmouth  that  not  even  the 
name  of  a  missionary  was  mentioned.  It  arose  from  causes  totally 
distinct.  Thus  have  we  the  experience  of  more  than  a  century  to 
justify  the  conclusion  that  nothing  is  to  be  feared  for  the  tranquillity 
of  India  from  the  operations  of  missionaries,  subject  as  they  must  ever 
be  to  the  control  of  the  constituted  authorities. 

The  number  of  natives  who  profess  Christianity  is  not  small  nor 
inconsiderable.  The  disciples  of  Schwartz  and  his  successors  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  peninsula  amount  to  fifty  tliousand,  and  the  Syrian 
Christians  on  the  coast  of  Malabar  to  several  hundred  thousands  ; 
the  greater  part  of  them  converted  from  the  Brahmins  and  the  higher 
classes.  They  have  subsisted  there  from  the  fifth  century,  are  in 
possession  of  one  hundred  and  nineteen  churches,  some  of  them 
sumptuous  and  splendid  edifices ;  and  their  superior  elevation  of 
character  and  purity  of  manners  are  attested  on  the  most  respectable 
authority  to  be  such  as  the  possession  of  the  Christian  faith  might  be 
expected  to  inspire.*  In  addition  to  this,  translations  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  almost  all  the  vernacular  dialects  of  India  have  been  recently 
circulated,  and  a  considerable  number  of  the  natives  are  assiduously 
and  constantly  employed  in  preaching  the  gospel ;  so  that  it  is  too 
late  to  think  of  checking  its  career :  the  possession  it  has  taken  of 
the  public  mind  will  necessarily  render  all  such  attempts  impracticable. 
The  only  question  which  remains  to  be  decided  is,  whether  its  further 
propagation  shall  be  left  solely  in  the  hands  of  natives,  or  whether 
intelligent  and  respectable  Europeans,  who  come  more  immediately 
into  contact  with  the  British  government,  and  in  whose  prudence  and 
experience  greater  confidence  may  be  reposed,  shall  be  allowed  to 
superintend  its  movements.  The  good  seed  having  struck  its  root  too 
deep  ever  to  be  extirpated,  the  only  alternative  is  either  to  leave  it  to 
its  spontaneous  growth,  aided  by  the  labour  of  Hindoos,  or  to  place  it 
under  a  more  skilful  and  enlightened  cultivation. 

Though  strangers  to  the  theory,  the  inhabitants  of  Hindostan  have 
been  long  familiarized  to  the  practice  of  toleration.  In  no  part  of  the 
world  is  there  a  greater  variety  of  sects,  or  more  contrariety  in  the 
modes  of  religious  belief,  subsisting  without  the  slightest  disturbance  ; 

*  See  the  interesting  narrative  of  Dr.  Buchanan's  visit  to  the  Syrian  Christians,  in  his  Ecclesias- 
tical Researches. 


112  ADDRESS  IN  REFERENCE  TO 

even  the  grand  division  of  the  natives  into  Hindoos  and  Mahometans 
has  continued  for  ages,  without  interruption  to  the  public  harmony. 

But  if  nothing  is  to  be  feared  from  the  dissemination  of  Christian 
principles  in  India,  the  advantages  resulting  from  it,  whether  we  con- 
sult the  interest  of  the  natives  or  our  own,  are  too  obvious  to  require 
to  be  enumerated,  and  too  important  to  be  overlooked.  With  respect 
to  its  aspect  on  the  natives,  will  it  be  contended  that  a  more  powerful 
instrument  can  be  devised  for  meliorating  and  raising  their  character, 
than  grafting  upon  it  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion,  which,  wherever 
it  prevails,  never  fails  to  perfect  whatever  is  good,  and  to  correct  what- 
ever is  evil,  in  the  human  constitution,  and  to  which  Europe  is  chiefly 
indebted  for  those  enlightened  views  and  that  high  sense  of  probity 
and  honour  which  distinguish  it  so  advantageously  in  a  comparison 
with  Asiatic  nations?  The  prevalence  of  Christianity  everywhere 
marks  the  boundary  which  separates  the  civilized  from  the  barbarous 
or  semi-barbarous  parts  of  the  world ;  let  but  this  boundary  be  ex- 
tended, and  the  country  included  within  its  limits  may  be  considered 
as  redeemed  from  the  waste,  and  prepared  to  receive  the  precious  seeds 
of  civilization  and  improvement.  Independently  of  eternal  prospects, 
it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  polytheism  and  idolatry  draw  after  them 
such  a  train  of  absurd  and  dismal  consequences  as  to  be  quite  incom- 
patible with  the  due  expansion  of  the  human  intellect,  and  necessarily 
to  prevent  the  operations  of  reason  from  reaching  their  maturity  and 
perfection.  Wherever  Christianity  prevails  mankind  are  uniformly 
progressive ;  it  commvniicates  that  just  manner  of  thinking  upon  the 
most  important  subjects  which,  extending  its  influence  thence  to  every 
department  of  speculative  and  moral  truth,  inspires  a  freedom  of  in- 
f[uiry  and  an  elevation  of  sentiment  which  raise  the  disciples  of  reve- 
lation immeasurably  above  the  level  of  unassisted  nature. 

The  Hindoo  superstition  is  characterized  by  a  puerile  extravagance 
of  conception,  as  hostile  to  the  cultivation  of  reason  as  the  enormity 
of  its  practices  is  revolting  to  humanity.  It  oppresses  the  former  by 
its  gigantic  absurdities ;  it  extinguishes  the  latter  by  the  cruelty  of  its 
rites.  The  annual  destruction  of  female  infants  in  Guzerat  and  Kutch 
is  estimated  at  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand.*  Till  lately,  it  had  been 
the  custom,  from  time  immemorial,  to  immolate,  at  the  island  of  Saugor, 
and  at  other  places  esteemed  holy,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  hu- 
man victims,  or  to  destroy  them  by  sharks.  From  a  late  investigation, 
it  appears  that  the  number  of  women  who  sacrifice  themselves  on  the 
funeral  pile  of  their  husbands,  within  thirty  miles  of  Calcutta,  is  on  an 
average  upwards  of  two  hundred  annually. f  A  multitude  of  courte- 
sans are  uniformly  attached  to  the  principal  temples,  and  the  most 
obscene  symbols  exhibited  to  inflame  the  passions  of  their  votaries. | 

While  the  history  of  all  times  and  nations  evinces  the  inseparable 
alliance  of  impurity  and  cruelty  with  the  worship  of  idols,  is  it  con- 
sistent with  the  dictates  of  humanity,  not  merely  to  witness  these  enor- 

*  See  Moore's  Hindoo  Infanticide. 

t  See  Buchanan's  Memoir,  p.  96,  Appendix.    In  a  letter  lately  received  from  Dr.  Carey,  he  esti- 
mates the  whole  number  of  women  annually  sacriticed  throughout  India  at  ten  thoueand. 
t  See  Sonnerat's  Voyage  aux  ludes  et  A  la  Chine,  p.  219. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  TO  INDIA.  113 

mities  without  attempting  to  correct  them,  but  to  oppose  the  communi- 
cation of  the  only  remedy  which  is  capable  of  effecting  a  cure  ? 

The  base  venality,  together  willi  the  spirit  of  artifice  and  intrigue, 
which  distinguish  the  natives  of  Hindostan,  have  rendered  it  the 
theatre  of  perpetual  revolutions,  robbed  its  native  governments  of 
every  principle  of  stability,  and  rendered  poisonings,  assassinations, 
and  treachery  expedients  so  constantly  resorted  to  by  the  parties  in 
conflict,  that  it  is  impossible  to  peruse  its  history  without  shuddering. 
To  affirm  that  there  is  nothing  in  their  superstitions  calculated  to  cor- 
rect these  vices  is  saying  little,  when  in  fact  they  derive  a  powerful 
sanction  from  the  maxims  of  their  religion,  and  from  the  character  of 
their  gods.  There  is  not  one  of  their  deities  portrayed  in  their  Shas- 
ters  whose  moral  character  is  tolerably  correct.  How  much  (Chris- 
tianity is  wanted  to  exalt  the  sentiments  and  purify  the  principles  of 
this  corrupt  and  eft'eminate  race  is  too  obvious  to  need  to  be  insisted  on. 

That  their  conversion  is  practicable  is  ascertained  beyond  contro- 
versy by  the  success  which  has  already  attended  the  experiment ;  that 
no  apprehensions  are  to  be  entertained  for  the  permanence  of  British 
power  in  consequence  of  the  attempt  is  manifest  from  experience ; 
that  to  consult  the  welfiire  of  the  subject  is  the  first  duty  of  the  sove- 
reign, and  the  chief  distinction  between  the  exercise  of  legitimate 
authority  and  the  operation  of  lawless' tyranny,  will  not  be  disputed  in 
an  enlightened  age ;  and  that  the  Christian  religion  is  the  greatest 
blessing  we  have  received,  the  most  precious  boon  we  can  bestow, 
none  but  infidels  will  deny.  It  surely  will  not  be  asserted  that  we 
are  under  less  obligation  to  communicate  a  good  because  that  good 
may  be  traced  to  the  immediate  interposition  of  Heaven,  or  because  it 
contains  the  seed  and  germ  of  eternal  felicity.  He  who  believes  the 
Bible  must  know  that  the  heathen  are  to  be  given  to  Christ  for  his 
inheritance,  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession,  and 
that  therefore  to  forbid  his  being  preached  to  the  gentiles  that  tJiey 
may  he  saved  is  an  attempt  to  contravene  the  purposes  of  the  Most 
High,  equally  impotent  and  presumptuous.  Let  the  potsherds  strive 
against  the  potsherds  of  the  earth,  but  wo  unto  him  tcho  striveth  against 
his  Maker.  Such  conduct,  persevered  in,  must  infallibly  draw  down 
the  judgments  of  God  on  the  people  to  whose  infatuated  counsels  it 
is  to  be  ascribed.  Whoever  considers  the  aspect  of  the  times  must 
be  invincibly  prejudiced  not  to  discern  the  symptoms  of  a  peculiar 
crisis,  the  distinguishing  features  of  which  are,  the  rapid  subversion 
of  human  institutions  and  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  stone  cut  out  without  hands  has  already  fallen  upon  the  image,  and 
made  it  like  the  chaff  of  the  summer  threshing-floor :  the  next  event 
we  are  to  look  for  in  the  order  of  Providence  is  its  enlarging  itself, 
till  it  becomes  a  great  mountain,  and  fills  the  whole  earth.  If  there 
ever  was  a  period  when  the  propagation  of  the  true  religion  might  be 
resisted  with  impunity,  that  period  is  past ;  and  the  Master  of  the 
universe  is  now  addressing  the  greatest  potentates  in  the  language  of 
an  ancient  oracle  : — Be  wise  now,  ye  kings ;  be  instructed,  ye  judges  of 
the  earth.     Encompassed  as  we  are  ^vith  the  awful  tokens  of  a  pre- 

VoL.  IL— H 


114  ADDRESS  IN  REFERENCE  TO 

siding  and  avenging  Providence,  dissolving  the  fabries  of  human  wis- 
dom, extinguishing  the  most  ancient  dynasties,  and  tearing  up  king- 
doms by  their  roots,  it  would  be  the  height  of  infatuation  any  longer 
to  oppose  the  reign  of  God,  whose  purposes  will  pursue  their  career 
in  spite  of  the  eflorts  of  human  policy,  which  must  either  yield  their 
co-operation,  or  be  broken  by  its  force. 

All  that  is  desired  on  this  occasion  is  simply  that  the  word  of  God 
may  be  permitted  to  have  free  course.  Whether  it  be  consistent  with 
sound  policy  for  the  British  government  to  employ  any  part  of  its 
resources  in  aid  of  the  cause  of  Christianity  in  India  is  a  question 
which  it  is  not  necessary  to  discuss,  while  its  friends  confine  their 
views  to  a  simple  toleration,  and  request  merely  that  its  teachers  may 
not  be  harassed  or  impeded  in  their  attempts  to  communicate  instruc- 
tion to  the  natives.  Before  such  a  liberty  can  be  withheld,  the  prin- 
ciples of  toleration  must  be  abandoned ;  nor  will  it  be  practicable  to 
withhold  it  without  exciting  a  sanguinary  persecution,  where  men  are 
to  be  found  who  will  eagerly  embrace  the  crown  of  martyrdom  rather 
than  relinquish  the  performance  of  what  appears  to  them  a  high  and 
awful  duty.  And  what  a  spectacle  will  it  exhibit,  for  a  Christian  gov- 
ernment to  employ  force  in  the  support  of  idolatry  and  the  suppression 
of  truth  ! 

Instead  of  dwelling  on  the  necessary  effects  of  such  a  measure,  let 
us  consider  for  a  moment  the  beneficial  consequences  likely  to  result 
from  an  opposite  mode  of  conduct.  On  that  improvement  of  character 
which  the  cordial  reception  of  revealed  truth  cannot  fail  to  operate,  it 
will  be  easy  to  graft  some  of  the  best  habits  and  institutions  of  Euro- 
pean nations,  advancing  gradually  through  an  interminable  series  of 
social  order  and  happiness.  Under  the  fostering  hand  of  religion, 
reason  will  develop  her  resources,  and  philosophy  mature  her  fruits. 
Nor  will  the  advantages  accruing  to  the  British  interests  from  a  change 
so  salutary  be  less  certain  or  less  important.  The  possession  of 
the  same  faith  will  occasion  such  an  approximation  of  the  habits  and 
sentiments  of  the  natives  to  our  own,  as  will  render  the  union  firm,  by 
rendering  it  cordial.  While  a  total  opposition  in  their  views  on  the 
most  important  points  subsists  between  the  sovereign  and  the  subjects, 
— while  objects  adored  by  the  one  are  held  in  contempt  and  abhor- 
rence by  the  other,  they  may  be  artificially  connected,  but  it  is  im- 
possible they  should  be  united :  it  is  rather  a  juxtaposition  of  inanimate 
parts,  than  a  union  of  minds.  In  such  a  situation  the  social  tie  wants 
that  cementing  principle  which  is  requisite  to  give  it  strength  and 
stability ;  it  is  a  strained  and  unnatural  position,  in  which  things  are 
lield  contrary  to  their  native  bent ;  in  which  authority  is  upheld  merely 
by  force,  without  deriving  support  from  that  sympathy  of  congenial 
sentiment  which  forms  its  truest  basis.  Hence  the  precarious  tenure 
by  which  European  states  have  successively  held  dominion  in  India, 
where  all  has  been  submitted  to  the  arbitration  of  the  sword ;  where 
the  moment  force  has  been  withdrawn  or  relaxed  authority  has  ceased, 
and  each  in  its  turn  has  gained  a  transient  ascendency,  none  a  firm 
and  tranquil  possession. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  TO  INDIA.  115 

In  order  to  obviate  the  mischiefs  arising  from  such  a  state  of  thinors, 
it  is  extremely  desirable,  providing  it  be  practicable,  to  impart  to  our 
subjects  in  the  East  some  principle  which  shall  draw  them  into  closer 
contact  with  the  ruling  power ;  and  what  principle  equally  operative 
and  efficient  with  the  possession  of  a  common  religion  ]  Though  the 
universal  diffusion  of  Christianity  over  India  will  probably  be  a  work 
of  time,  its  influence  in  strengthening  the  social  compact,  by  augmenting 
the  attachment  of  the  natives,  will  be  uniformly  progressive ;  and 
while  external  tranquillity  is  secured  by  the  superiority  of  our  policy 
and  our  arms,  we  shall  every  year  be  making  our  way  into  their  hearts  : 
we  shall  be  establishing  an  interior  dominion,  and  may  confidently 
reckon  on  the  unshaken  fidelity  of  every  Christian  convert.  This  is 
not  mere  conjecture :  for  in  all  the  trying  vicissitudes  experienced  by 
the  British  interests  in  India,  the  Hindoo  Christians  have  invariably 
approved  themselves  our  firmest  friends  and  abetters. 

Though  the  writer  of  this  address  is  afraid  of  being  tedious,  there 
is  another  consideration  connected  with  the  present  subject  which  he 
deems  of  too  much  importance  not  to  be  mentioned.  The  posses- 
sion of  India,  it  is  well  known,  is  an  object  to  which  our  enemies  are 
looking  with  eager  desire,  accompanied  with  jealousy  at  that  splen- 
dour which  the  vastness  of  our  oriental  empire  confers  on  the  British 
name  and  character.  No  efforts  will  they  deem  too  great,  no  sacrifices 
too  expensive,  to  rob  us  of  so  bright  a  jewel.  What  events  may  arise 
hereafter  to  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  their  wishes  it  is  beyond 
the  power  of  human  sagacity  to  conjecture :  one  thing  is  certain,  that 
nothing  will  oppose  a  more  formidable  obstacle  to  their  designs  than 
the  diffusion  of  Christianity.  They  who  have  received  that  inestima- 
ble blessing  will  infallibly  cling  with  ardour  to  the  people  to  whom 
they  are  indebted  for  it.  They  will  feel  more  than  a  natural  affection 
to  the  country  which  has  opened  to  them  the  prospect  of  immortality, 
and  nourished  them  with  the  bread  of  life.  In  all  the  struggles  to 
retain  or  to  acquire  dominion  in  the  East,  the  Christian  portion  of  the 
population  will,  to  a  man,  be  the  zealous  partisans  of  Great  Britain ; 
a  firm  and  immoveable  band,  whose  devoted  attachment  will  in  some 
measure  compensate  for  their  inferiority  of  number.  In  this  species 
of  policy  too,  in  this  most  unexceptionable  mode  of  conciliating  esteem, 
we  shall  have  nothing  to  apprehend  from  the  intrigues  of  our  rivals, 
who  are  equally  indisposed  and  disqualified  to  engage  in  such  an 
enterprise. 

If  we  consider  what  may  be  the  probable  intention  of  Providence  in 
opening  so  extensive  a  communication  between  Europe  and  the  most 
ancient  seats  of  idolatry,  and  more  especially  of  subjecting  such  im- 
mense territories  in  the  East  to  the  British  arms,  we  can  conceive  no 
end  more  worthy  of  the  Deity  in  these  momentous  changes  than  to 
facilitate  the  propagation  of  true  religion. 

Our  acquisition  of  power  there  has  been  so  rapid,  so  extensive,  and 
so  disproporlioned  to  the  limits  of  our  native  empire,  that  there  are 
few  events  in  which  the  interposition  of  Providence  may  be  more  dis- 
tinctly traced.     From  the  possession  of  a  few  forts  in  different  parts 

H2 


116  ADDRESS  IN  REFERENCE  TO 

of  the  coast,  which  we  were  permitted  to  erect  for  the  protection  of 
our  commerce,  we  have  risen,  in  the  course  of  less  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, to  a  summit  of  power  whence  we  exert  a  direct  dominion  over 
fifty  millions,  and  a  paramount  influence  over  a  hundred  millions  of 
men.  By  an  astonishing  train  of  events,  a  large  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  oriental  world  has  been  subjected  to  the  control  of  an 
island  placed  in  the  extremities  of  the  west  of  Europe.  Kingdoms 
have  fallen  after  kingdoms,  and  provinces  after  provinces,  with  a  ra- 
pidity which  resembles  the  incidents  of  a  romance,  rather  than  the 
accustomed  order  of  polhical  events.  It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  this 
career  of  conquest  has  uniformly  directed  its  steps  towards  those  parts 
of  the  earth,  and  to  those  only,  which  are  the  primeval  seats  of  pagan 
idolatry  ;  forming  an  intimate  connexion  between  the  most  enlightened 
of  Christian  nations  and  the  victims  of  the  most  inveterate  and  deplo- 
rable system  of  superstition  mankind  have  ever  witnessed.  As  we 
must  be  blind  not  to  discern  the  finger  of  God  in  these  transactions,  it 
behooves  us  to  consider  for  what  purposes  we  are  lifted  to  so  high  a 
pre-eminence. 

It  is  certainly  not  to  be  ascribed  to  a  blind  predilection,  which  aims 
at  no  other  object  than  to  gratify  ambition,  by  extending  the  power 
and  augmenting  the  grandeur  of  Great  Britain  ;  a  motive  loo  puerile 
to  satisfy  the  requisitions  of  human  reason,  much  more  to  limit  the 
views  of  an  eternal  mind. 

The  possession  of  sovereignty  over  extensive  kingdoms  is  a  sacred 
trust,  for  which  nations  are  not  less  responsible  than  individuals,  a 
delegation  fi-om  the  supreme  Fountain  of  power ;  and  as  the  unalter- 
able laws  of  nature  forbid  us  to  confound  men  with  things,  or  to  forget 
the  reciprocal  obligations  subsisting  between  the  sovereign  and  the  sub- 
ject, we  can  scarcely  be  guilty  of  a  greater  crime  than  to  consider  the 
latter  as  merely  subservient  to  the  interests  of  the  former.  Every 
individual  of  the  immense  population  subjected  to  our  sway  has  claims 
on  our  justice  and  benevolence  which  we  cannot  with  impunity  neg- 
lect :  the  wants  and  sufferings  of  every  individual  utter  a  voice  which 
goes  to  the  heart  of  humanity.  In  return  for  their  allegiance  we  owe 
them  protection  and  instruction,  together  with  every  effort  to  meliorate 
their  condition  and  improve  their  character.  It  is  but  fair  to  acknow- 
ledge that  we  have  not  been  wholly  insensible  to  these  claims,  and 
that  the  extension  of  our  power  has  been  hitherto  highly  beneficial. 
But  why,  in  the  series  of  improvements,  has  Christianity  been  neg- 
lected? Why  has  the  communication  of  the  greatest  good  we  have 
to  bestow  been  hitherto  fettered  and  restrained ;  and  while  every 
modification  of  idolatry,  not  excepting  the  bloody  and  obscene  orgies  of 
Juggernaut,  has  received  support,  has  every  attempt  to  instruct  the 
natives  in  the  things  which  belong  to  their  peace  been  suppressed  1  It 
will  surely  appear  surprising  to  posterity,  that  a  nation,  glorying  in  the 
purity  of  its  faith  as  its  highest  distinction,  should  suff'er  its  transac- 
tions in  the  East  to  be  characterized  by  a  spirit  of  infidelity,  as  though 
it  were  imagined  the  foundations  of  empire  could  be  laid  only  in  apos- 
tacy  and  impiety ;  at  a  moment,  too,  when  Europe,  convulsed  to  its 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  TO  INDIA.  117 

centre,  beholds  these  frantic  erections  swept  with  the  besom  of  de- 
struction. Their  astonishment  will  be  the  more  excited  when  they 
compare  our  conduct  in  this  instance  with  the  unprecedented  exertions 
we  are  making  for  the  diffusion  of  religious  knowledge  in  other  direc- 
tions ;  with  the  operations  of  the  Bible  Society,  which,  formed  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  conveying  the  oracles  of  God  to  all  quarters,  has  risen 
to  an  importance  that  entitles  it  to  be  regarded  as  a  national  concern ; 
in  which  statesmen,  nobles,  and  prelates  have  enrolled  iheir  names, 
emulous  of  the  honour  of  advancing  to  the  utmost  the  noble  design  of 
the  mstitution ;  with  the  Bartlett's  Buildings  Society,  employed  for  up- 
wards of  a  century  in  attempts  to  convert  the  natives  of  Hindostan, 
which  includes  in  the  list  of  its  members  every  bishop  and  every  dig- 
nified ecclesiastic  in  the  realm  ;  with  the  numerous  translations  going 
on  in  all  the  dialects  of  the  East,  to  which  the  learned,  both  in  Europe 
and  in  Asia,  are  looking  with  eager  expectation.  When  posterity 
shall  compare  the  conduct  we  are  reprobating  with  these  facts,  how 
great  their  astonishment  to  find  the  piety  of  the  nation  has  suffered 
itself  to  lie  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  a  few  individuals,  the  open  or  dis- 
guised enemies  of  the  faith  of  Jesus  ! 

It  is  impossible,  in  connexion  with  the  circumstances  to  which  we 
have  adverted,  to  mistake  the  real  sentiments  of  the  British  people,  or 
not  to  perceive  that  the  illustrious  associations  already  mentioned  are 
entitled,  on  a  question  of  this  nature,  to  be  considered  as  its  genuine 
and  legitimate  organ. 

It  ought  never  to  be  forgotten,  in  the  consideration  of  this  subject, 
that  it  is  inseparably  connected  with  liberty  of  conscience.  Religious 
toleration  implies  not  merely  the  freedom  of  thought,  which  no  human 
power  can  restrain,  and  which  equally,  subsists  under  the  most  tyran- 
nical and  the  most  enlightened  governments ;  it  comprehends  also  the 
freedom  of  communication  and  the  right  of  discussion,  within  the 
limits  of  sober  and  dispassionate  argument.  He  who  is  impressed 
with  a  conviction  of  the  importance  of  the  Christian  verities,  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  suppose,  will  be  anxious  to  communicate  them:  he  will 
probably  feel  as  St.  Paul  did  in  a  similar  situation,  whose  spirit  was 
stirred  within  him  when  he  beheld  Athens  wholly  given  up  to  idolatry : 
he  may  be  touched  with  so  strong  a  commiseration  for  the  victims  of 
religious  imposture,  and  so  powerful  a  sense  of  the  duty  of  attempting 
to  correct  it,  as  to  be  ready  to  adopt  the  language  employed  on  another 
occasion — "  We  cannot  but  speak  the  things  which  we  have  seen  and 
heard." 

None  but  the  determined  enemy  of  truth  and  decency  will  deny 
that  such  a  state  of  mind  is  possible,  or  that  it  is  more  allied  to  virtue 
than  to  vice.  If  at  this  juncture  a  superior  power  interposes,  and 
says,  You  shall  not  impart  your  conviction,  however  strong ;  you  shall 
not  attempt  to  dispel  delusions  the  most  gross,  or  correct  enormities 
the  most  flagrant,  though  no  other  means  are  thought  of  but  calm 
expostulation  and  argument ;  in  what,  I  would  ask,  does  such  an  inter- 
ference differ  from  persecution  ?  Here  is  conscience  on  one  side,  an 
enlightened  conscience,  as  all  Christians  must  confess,  and  (btCB  on 


118  ADDRESS  IN  REFERENCE  TO 

the  other  ;  which  is  precisely  the  position  in  which  things  are  placed 
by  every  instance  of  persecuiion.  If  Christianity  was  ever  persecuted, 
if  the  martyrologies  of  all  times  and  nations  are  not  to  be  exploded 
as  mere  fiction  and  romance,  this  is  persecution,  and  persecution  of  a 
most  portentous  character,  being  directed,  in  support  of  a  system  we 
detest,  against  the  religion  by  which  we  expect  to  be  saved.  Here  are 
a  people,  indignant  posterity  will  exclaim,  who  profess  subjection  to, 
the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  hold  in  dieir  hands  the  oracles  which 
foretell  the  universal  extension  of  his  dominion,  who  yet  make  it  a 
crime- to  breathe  his  name  in  pagan  lands,  and  employ  their  power  to 
fence  out  the  scene  of  his  future  triumphs,  and  render  it,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, inaccessible  to  his  religion.  With  what  efficacious  sincerity 
and  edifying  fervour  must  this  people  have  prayed,  "  Thy  kingdom 
come !"  Admirable  successors  of  the  Constantines  and  the  Charle- 
magnes  of  a  former  age !  Faithful  stewards  of  the  manifold  gifts 
of  God ! 

When  the  parallel  between  the  conduct  of  modern  missionaries  and 
the  first  preachers  of  the  gospel  is  insisted  on,  it  is  usual  to  attempt  to 
annul  the  conclusion  deduced  from  the  comparison,  by  remarking  that 
the  latter  were  possessed  of  miraculous  powers,  to  which  the  former 
make  no  pretensions.  That  this  circumstance  occasions  a  real  dis- 
parity in  the  means  of  ensuring  success  will  be  readily  acknowledged  ; 
but  that  it  makes  any  difference  whatever  in  the  right  of  imparting 
instruction  will  not  hastily  be  conceded.  Had  such  supernatural 
interpositions  never  accompanied  the  publication  of  the  gospel,  it  had 
wanted  its  credentials,  and  been  essentially  defective  in  the  proof  of  its 
divine  origination.  It  was  necessary  for  a  new  dispensation,  when 
first  ushered  into  the  world,  to  be  accompanied  with  a  direct  appeal  to 
the  senses,  with  the  visible  signatures  of  a  Divine  hand ;  and  it  is  the 
glory  of  our  holy  religion  to  have  possessed  them  in  a  variety  and 
splendour  that  astonished  mankind,  and  laid  a  foundation  for  the  faith 
and  obedience  of  all  succeedmg  ages.  At  its  entrance,  such  an 
economy  was  requisite  to  prepare  the  way.  But  when  these  miracu- 
lous occurrences,  after  enduring  the  severest  scrutiny,  under  circum- 
stances the  most  favourable  to  investigation,  were  committed  to  writing, 
and  formed  a  compact  body  of  external  evidences, — when  the  super- 
natural origin  of  the  Christian  faith  had  taken  its  place  among  the  most 
indubitable  of  recorded  facts,  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  be  continually 
repeating  the  same  proofs,  nor  consistent  with  the  majesty  of  Heaven 
to  be  ever  laying  the  foundation  afresh.  It  was  time  to  assume  the 
truth  of  religion  as  a  thing  proved. 

As  we  were  none  of  us  eyewitnesses  of  the  miracles  wrought  in  the 
primitive  ages,  but  rest  our  belief  on  historical  documents,  it  is  not 
impossible,  as  far  as  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  concerned,  to  lay  open 
to  pagans  the  sources  of  our  conviction,  and  by  that  means  to  place 
them  in  nearly  the  same  situation  with  ourselves ;  to  say  nothing  of 
that  internal  evidence  which  commends  itself  to  every  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God.  This  is  actually  the  mode  in  which  the  light  of 
Revelation  has  hem  chiefly  diffused  since  the  cessation  of  miraculous 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  TO  INDIA.  II9 

gifts ;  which  in  the  opinion  of  some  terminated  with  the  apostles,  in 
the  judgment  of  others  were  continued  through  the  first  three  centuries, 
but  are  universally  allowed  to  have  ceased  long  before  the  conversion 
of  the  northern  and  western  parts  of  Europe,  Did  the  disciples  of  St. 
Columba,  who  spread  Christianity  through  the  German  provinces  on 
the  Baltic,  through  the  kingdoms  of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark, 
owe  their  success  to  miraculous  powers  ?  Did  St.  Austin  and  his 
associates,  who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  religious  establishments  in 
England,  make  such  pretensions  ? 

To  demand  miracles  in  order  to  justify  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianhy  in  pagan  countries  is  to  attribute  to  it  a  state  of  perpetual  weak- 
ness and  pupilage :  it  is  to  cancel  all  that  is  past,  to  accuse  the  most 
illustrious  missionaries  of  enthusiasm,  and  the  faith  of  our  forefathers 
of  folly  and  credulity.  The  principle  we  are  attempting  to  expose, 
not  content  with  inflicting  a  stigma  on  a  particular  sect  or  party,  involves 
the  whole  Christian  community  established  in  these  realms  in  the  foul 
reproach  of  being  the  illegitimate  offspring  of  fanaticism  or  imposture. 
It  is  only  necessary  for  us  to  place  ourselves  in  imagination  at  that 
period  when  the  foundation  of  the  church  was  laid  in  this  and  in  other 
European  countries,  to  perceive  that  the  same  objections  which  are 
made  to  the  present  efforts  of  missionaries  apply  with  equal  force  to 
those  that  are  past.  They  who  first  exhibited  the  myster)^  of  the  Cross 
to  the  view  of  our  rude  ancestors  were  equally  destitute  of  miraculous 
powers  with  ourselves.  But  they  felt  the  power  of  the  world  to  come  : 
they  were  deeply  impressed  with  the  dignity  and  excellence  of  the 
Christian  dispensation,  and  touched  with  a  passionate  regard  for  the 
honour  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls.  These  were  the  motives 
which  impelled  them  forward ;  these  the  weapons  of  their  warfare. 
The  ridicule  attempted  to  be  poured  on  men  of  the  same  principles 
and  character,  engaged  in  the  same  object,  is,  in  fact,  reflected  on  these 
their  predecessors,  and  is  precisely  a  repetition  of  the  conduct  of  the 
impenitent  Jews,  who  honoured  the  memory  and  built  the  sepulchres 
of  departed,  while  they  were  imbuing  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  living, 
prophets.  We  collect,  with  eager  veneration,  the  names  and  achieve- 
ments of  the  first  heralds  of  the  gospel ;  we  dwell  with  exultation  on 
the  heroic  fortitude  they  displayed  in  encountering  the  opposition  of 
fierce  barbarians,  amid  their  efforts  to  reclaim  them  from  a  sanguinary 
superstition,  and  to  imbue  their  minds  with  the  principles  of  an  en- 
lightened piety.  We  look  up  to  them  as  to  a  superior  order  of  beings, 
and  in  the  character  of  the  instructers  of  mankind  in  the  sublimest 
lessons,  entitled  to  a  distinction  above  all  Greek,  above  all  Roman 
fame ;  yet,  with  ineffable  absurdity,  and  a  most  contemptible  littleness 
of  mind,  if  it  please  Providence  at  distant  intervals  to  raise  up  a  few 
congenial  spirits,  we  are  prepared  to  treat  them  with  levity  and  scorn. 
It  is  the  misfortune  of  some  men  to  labour  under  an  incapacity  of  dis- 
cerning living  worth  ; — a  sort  of  moral  virtuosi,  who  form  their  estimate 
of  characterf ,  as  the  antiquarian  of  coins,  by  the  rust  of  antiquity. 

"  Urit  enim  fUlffore  suo,  qui  praefravat  artes 
Infra  Be  pbsitas :  extinctus  amabltnr  Idem."— Horaw. 


120  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  TO  INDIA. 

I  would  not  be  underslood,  in  the  remarks  made  on  this  part  of  the 
subject,  to  explode  the  expectation  of  the  renewal  of  miraculous  agency  ; 
which  some  of  the  most  able  divines  have  unquestionably  formed,  from 
a  perusal  of  the  prophetic  oracles.  The  inference  I  would  wish  to 
establish  is  simply  this,  that  we  are  not  justified  in  neglecting  the 
means  of  propagating  the  truth  we  already  possess  by  the  absence  of 
higher  succour ;  and  that  it  would  ill  become  the  Christian  world  to 
abandon  the  attempts  to  convert  the  inhabitants  of  pagan  countries,  in 
deference  ro  the  clamours  of  men,  who  demand  miracles  merely  becanse 
they  believe  they  will  not  be  vouchsafed,  and  decry  the  ordinary 
methods  of  procedure,  because  they  are  witliin  our  reach,  and  have 
already  been  crowned  with  success.  To  such  the  language  of  the 
prophet  Amos  may  be  addressed  with  propriety  : — Wo  unto  you  that 
desire  the  day  of  the  Lord !  to  what  end  is  it  for  you  ?  The  day  of 
the  Lord  is  darkness,  and  not  light.     Chap.  v.  18. 


AN 

APPEAL  TO   THE  PUBLIC, 

ON    THE    SUBJECT    OF 

THE   FRAMEWORK    KNITTERS'    FUND. 


[Published  in  1819.] 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Impressed  as  the  writer  of  these  pages  has  long  been  with  the 
critical  state  of  the  stocking  manufactory,  and  the  intolerable  evils 
resulting  from  a  progressive  depression  of  wages,  he  could  not  refrain 
from  communicating  his  sentiments  on  this  most  interesting  subject. 
He  is  aware  of  his  inability  to  discuss  it  with  that  precision  and  force 
which  superior  talents  might  command.  His  only  apology  is,  that  he 
has  done  what  he  could.  His  reason  for  suppressing  his  name  is  sim- 
ply, that  while  it  might  possibly  create  prejudice  in  some  quarters,  he 
is  not  aware  that  it  would  bestow  additional  weight  in  any 


AN  APPEAL. 


It  is  with  the  highest  satisfaction  I  perceive  that  the  wretched  state 
of  the  labouring  mechanics  in  Leicestershire  has  at  length  arrested  the 
attention  and  drawn  forth  the  liberality  of  a  discerning  public.  But 
while  we  rejoice  to  see  such  a  feeling  awakened,  we  must  be  permitted 
to  express  our  surprise  and  concern  at  the  very  scanty  and  penurious 
contribution  it  has  hitherto  produced.  After  witnessing  such  an  unex- 
ampled depression  in  the  remuneration  of  labour  as  to  place  the  means 
of  subsistence  totally  out  of  the  reach  of  the  industrious  poor,  when 
the  only  alternative  presented  is  that  of  effective  aid  aiforded  by  the 
more  opulent  or  the  total  ruin  and  extinction  of  the  labouring  classes, 
it  was  natural  to  expect  that  the  extent  and  magnitude  of  the  exertion 
would  bear  some  proportion  to  the  greatness  of  the  object  and  the  exi- 
gence of  the  case.  That  this  expectation  is  as  yet  far  from  being 
realized  requires  no  proof,  nor  will  it  be  possible  to  prevent  the  recur- 
rence of  that  intolerable  state  of  suffering  which  we  have  recently 
witnessed,  without  more  extensive  and  vigorous  efforts. 

It  is  frequently  asserted,  we  are  aware,  that  the  rate  of  wages,  like 
every  other  article,  should  be  left  to  find  its  own  level,  and  that  all 
attempts  at  artificial  regulation,  either  by  voluntary  association  or  legal 
enactment,  is  repugnant  to  the  true  principles  of  political  economy. 
That  commerce  ought  to  be  left  to  its  native  operation  to  a  much 
greater  extent  than  it  is,  we  have  learned  from  the  highest  authority; 
nor  is  it  proposed  to  implore  the  interference  of  legislature  in  aid  of 
our  present  object.  But  there  is  a  peculiarity  in  the  case  of  manual 
labour  to  wliich  we  suspect  the  persons  who  urge  this  objection  have 
not  attended. 

When  the  price  of  a  particular  commodity  sinks  so  low  as  not  to 
produce  the  ordinary  profits  of  stock,  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the  ca])ital 
is  withdrawn  ;  a  less  quantity  is  produced  in  proportion  to  the  diminu- 
tion of  the  demand,  in  consequence  of  which  the  price  rises  to  its 
former  level.  Thus  the  irregularity  corrects  itself,  and  little  or  no 
permanent  mischief  ensues.  But  the  situation  of  the  labourer  is  widely 
different ;  he  has  no  other  article  to  dispose  of  besides  his  personal 
industry  and  skill,  on  which  he  depends  for  his  subsistence  from  day 
to  day,  nor  can  he,  without  being  reduced  to  immediate  distress,  with- 
hold them  from  the  market,  or  excn  diminish  their  exertion  to  any 
considerable  degree.  The  only  commodity  he  has  to  part  with  is  of 
such  a  nature  that  it  will  not  permit  him  to  adjust  the  supply  to  the 


126  APPEAL  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF 

demand.  He  must  instantly  offer  it  to  sale  at  whatever  price  it  will 
fetch,  or  suffer  all  the  agonies  of  want.  Hence  this  is  the  kind  of 
property  of  all  others  the  most  defenceless  and  which  most  needs  pro- 
tection. That  the  rate  of  wages  has  a  tendency  to  keep  pace  with  the 
price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  is  undeniable,  but,  from  the  cause  we 
have  now  mentioned,  it  is  long  before  that  tendency  becomes  effective  ; 
the  labourer  and  the  mechanic  are  the  last  who  experience  the  bene- 
ficial effect  of  an  elevation  in  prices. 

But  admitting  the  objection  to  which  we  have  adverted  to  be  more 
weighty  than  it  is,  where  is  the  equity  of  urging  it  in  opposition  to  the 
claims  of  the  labouring  classes,  while  it  is  treated  with  the  utmost 
neglect  on  other  occasions  ?  What  is  the  object,  let  me  ask,  of  the 
laws  for  the  regulation  of  trade,  which  form  so  large  a  part  of  our  acts 
of  parliament,  but  to  secure  to  certain  descriptions  of  the  community  a 
higher  price  for  the  respective  commodities  which  they  produce,  and 
thus  to  direct  the  application  of  capital  to  a  specific  object  ?  What  is 
the  design,  the  avowed  object  at  least,  of  the  corn  bill  but  to  encourage 
agriculture  by  securing  a  higher  price  for  its  productions  than  they 
could  command  were  they  exposed  to  the  effects  of  foreign  compe- 
tition ?  What  is  the  design  of  the  additional  duty  lately  imposed  on 
foreign  wool  but  to  bestow  an  artificial  elevation  on  the  price  of  that 
article  as  a  means  of  promoting  its  domestic  growth  ?  and  why  so 
extensive  a  list  of  prohibitory  statutes,  except  they  are  intended  to 
encourage  our  home  manufactures  by  securing  to  them  a  higher  price? 
Not  to  multiply  words  on  so  plain  a  subject,  suffice  it  to  remark,  that 
all  laws  and  regulations  of  the  legislature  respecting  trade  and  agricul- 
ture, with  the  exception  of  such  as  immediately  relate  to  revenue,  have 
for  their  immediate  object  the  modification  of  price  ;  it  is  by  that  means, 
and  that  alone,  that  they  furnish  encouragement  to  that  species  of  pro- 
ductive industry  which  it  is  deemed  expedient  to  favour.  Hence  it  is 
evident  that  the  vaunted  maxim  of  leaving  every  kind  of  production  and 
labour  to  find  its  own  level  is  not  adhered  to ;  that  it  has  always  been 
violated  in  this  country  from  the  remotest  times.  An  adherence  to  it 
would  create  a  total  revolution  in  our  mercantile  system,  and  while  it 
is  trampled  under  foot  every  day,  it  just  commands  a  sufficient  degree 
of  theoretic  assent  to  render  it,  in  the  hands  of  the  artful  and  designing, 
a  bugbear  to  deter  the  humane  from  rendering  effectual  assistance  to 
the  distressed  and  laborious  part  of  the  community.  But  what,  let  me 
once  more  ask,  what  reason  can  be  assigned  for  leaving  this  class 
unprotected,  the  most  helpless  in  society,  from  the  cause  already 
specified ;  while  the  agricultural,  the  manufacturing,  and  the  mercan- 
tile interests  are  shielded  with  jealous  attention  by  a  multitude  of  legal 
provisions  ? 

Why  a  philosophical  theory,  which  is  violated  with  impunity  every 
moment,  should  then  only  be  deemed  sacred  when  it  stands  opposed 
to  the  claims  of  a  starving  and  industrious  population,  we  are  at  a  loss 
to  conjecture.  Let  it  be  remembered,  however,  that  an  application  to 
the  legislature  forms  no  part  of  the  present  plan :  although,  if  every 
other  expedient  should  fail,  we  see  no  reason  why  its  aid  should  not 


THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  127 

be  exerted  in  favour  of  the  Leicestershire  framework  knitters  as  well 
as  of  the  Spitalfields  weavers,  who  were  a  few  years  ago  effectually- 
relieved  by  the  establishment  of  a  minimum*  with  tlie  entire  approba- 
tion of  tlie  principal  manufacturers.  The  excellent  Mr.  Wilberforce 
had  a  principal  share  in  procuring  that  regulation ;  nor  is  it  to  be 
doubted  that,  in  conjunction  with  other  humane  and  enlightened 
senators,  lie  would  be  ready  to  exert,  if  necessary,  the  same  efforts 
for  the  mitigation  of  similar  distress. 

The  measure  now  intended  is  of  a  less  bold  and  hazardous  char- 
acter. It  is  proposed  simply  by  means  of  voluntary  contribution  to 
afford  a  subsistence,  scanty  it  will  probably  be  at  the  best,  to  that  por- 
tion of  the  labouring  class  who  are  destitute  of  employment,  that  they 
may  not  be  compelled  to  offer  their  labour  for  next  to  nothing,  and  thus 
reduce  the  general  rate  of  wages  to  that  scale  of  depression  which  has 
been  already  productive  of  such  calamitous  effects.  On  the  present 
system,  those  who  are  thrown  out  of  employment  are  tempted  to  offer 
their  service  for  a  remuneration  totally  inadequate  to  their  wants.  But 
a  material  inequality  of  wages  for  the  same  quantity  of  work  is  un- 
natural, and  therefore  cannot  be  permanent ;  the  consequence  is,  that 
the  wages  of  all  tlie  workmen  are  soon  reduced  to  the  rate  at  which 
the  first  hands  are  engaged.  Thus  a  small  surplus  of  labour  beyond 
what  the  state  of  the  demand  requires  becomes  an  engine  for  effecting 
a  deep  and  universal  depression ;  and  the  misery  of  a  few,  instead  of 
exciting  an  effort  for  their  relief,  becomes  the  signal  for  a  more  ex- 
tended infliction  of  the  same  calamity.  To  this  evil  no  conceivable 
remedy  short  of  legislative  interference  can  be  applied,  except  the 
creation  of  a  fund  capable  of  supplying  the  more  pressing  necessities 
of  those  whom  the  vicissitudes  of  trade  may  deprive  of  employment. 
This  is  the  only  expedient  that  furnishes  the  faintest  prospect  of  giving 
permanence  and  stability  to  the  statement  to  which  the  principal  manu- 
facturers have,  agreed ;  and  on  the  vigour  with  which  it  is  carried  into 
effect  depends  our  only  chance  of  obviating  the  recurrence,  with  fresh 
aggravations,  of  the  distress  we  have  lately  witnessed. 

The  benefits  resulting  ii'om  the  successful  operation  of  the  measure 
we  are  recommending  will  not  be  confined  to  its  immediate  objects,  it 
will  extend  its  influence  to  every  class  of  the  community ;  and  the 
alleviation  which  it  will  afibrd  to  the  almost  insupportable  burthen  of  the 
poor-rates  will  be  of  eminent  advantages  to  the  parishes.  Suppose  in  a 
particular  parish  a  hundred  frames  at  work,  and  each  of  the  framework 
knitters  earns,  clear  of  all  deductions,  ten  shillings  a  week  instead  of 
six,  that  parish  is  benefited  to  the  amount  of  a  thousand  pounds ;  and 
considering  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the  former  wages  to  procure  the 
necessaries  of  life,  the  alteration  will  be  nearly  equivalent  to  an  annual 
donation  of  a  thousand  pounds  to  the  parochial  treasure.  That  it  is 
the  interest  of  the  manufacturing  villages  to  exert  themselves  to  the 
utmost  in  perpetuating  the  present  statement  is  an  inference  which 
must  force  itself  on  the  attention  of  the  most  careless  observer ;  and 
nothing  but  the  most  infatuated  preference  of  tlie  present  to  the  future 

*  The  lowest  rate  at  which  labour  should  be  paid  for. 


128  APPEAL  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF 

can  prevent  them  from  giving  to  the  fund  a  liberal  support.  Trades- 
men of  every  description  are  deeply  interested  in  the  success  of  the 
present  measure,  since  the  permanent  rise  of  wages  will  increase  the 
power  of  purchase,  and  give  a  new  impulse  to  every  species  of  trade. 
Supposing  the  number  engaged  in  all  the  various  departments  of  the 
stocking  manufactory  to  amount  to  thirty  thousand,  no  extravagant 
computation,  and  little  less  than  three  hundred  thousand  pounds,  in 
addition  to  the  present  sum,  will  annually  find  its  way  into  the  market ; 
the  agriculturist  will  find  his  account  in  the  increased  demand  for  raw 
produce,  the  manufacturer  and  the  dealer,  both  wholesale  and  retail,  in 
a  more  extended  purchase  of  wrought  goods.  The  landed  proprietor 
will  also  be  essentially  benefited;  for  who  does  not  know  that  the 
value  of  land  must  always  bear  a  certain  proportion  to  the  demand  for 
manufactures,  and  to  the  general  diffusion  of  prosperity  1  Thus  all 
orders  will  reap  the  advantage  of  a  change  of  system. 

On  a  subject  so  immediately  connected  with  the  claims  of  humanity 
it  is  surely  not  too  much  to  expect,  that  nothing  more  will  be  neces- 
sary to  inspire  an  aversion  to  the  system  recently  adopted  than  a 
recollection  of  its  actual  effect  in  the  ruin  and  prostration  of  the  indus- 
trious mechanic.  That  man  is  liitle  to  be  envied  whose  enjoyments 
are  not  essentially  imbittered  by  the  prospect  of  surrounding  misery, 
who  daily  beholds  with  untroubled  composure  innumerable  counte- 
nances clouded  with  dejection  and  despair.  Were  the  state  of  suffering 
with  which  we  have  long  been  familiar  removed  from  immediate  obser- 
vation, we  could  scarcely  hear  of  it  without  agitation ; — how  much 
more  afflicting  to  be  placed  in  the  midst  of  it,  to  feel  it  pressing  on  our 
senses  in  all  directions,  without  the  power  of  contributing  any  thing  to 
its  mitigation  and  relief,  beyond  a  barren  and  impotent  commiseration  ! 
Is  tliere  no  hazard  of  contracting  a  fatal  induration  by  a  daily  familiarity 
with  indigence  which  we  cannot  alleviate,  with  scenes  of  wo  we  can 
neither  remove  nor  diminisli  1  To  go  into  the  house  of  mourning  is 
good,  since  it  is  adapted  to  impress  salutary  lessons  ;  but  to  divell  in  a 
situation  where  every  house  is  become  such  is  a  state  to  -which  nothing 
but  utter  insensibility  can  be  reconciled. 

There  are,  however,  higher  if  not  more  affecting  considerations  con- 
nected with  the  present  subject.  If  the  evil  which  we  have  now  the 
means  of  escaping  should  return,  it  will  be  in  vain  for  us  to  flatter  our- 
selves with  a  long  duration  of  tranquillity :  a  starving  must  not  be 
expected  to  be  a  contented  population,  nor  will  any  change  be  depre- 
cated by  those  to  whom  existence  itself  has  become  a  burthen.  The 
instinctive  feelings  of  nature  will  urge  to  some  desperate  efibrt,  and 
they  will  cease  to  be  restrained  by  legal  coercion  who  already  suffer 
more  than  the  utmost  rigour  of  the  law  can  inflict.  The  heart  that  is 
withered  with  despair  obtains  an  awful  emancipation  from  the  ordinary 
restraints  of  human  action ;  and  when  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
people  is  reduced  to  that  extremity,  what  is  to  be  expected  but  that 
the  physical  energies  which  are  found  inadequate  to  the  subsistence  of 
their  possessors  by  the  exercise  of  honest  industry  will  take  an  un- 
natural and  destructive  direction? 


THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  129 

The  manufacture  of  this  county  is  so  fortunately  circumstanced 
in  being  exempted  from  foreign  interference  and  competition,  that 
nothing  can  materially  injure  it  except  its  internal  mismanagement. 
In  the  article  of  hosiery  we  possess  a  monopoly.  While  cotton  thread 
is  allowed  to  be  exported,  and  to  give  birth  to  numerous  foreign  estab- 
lishments, the  kinds  of  wool  necessary  for  our  manufacture  are  pro- 
hibited from  going  abroad.  We  have  the  exclusive  command  of  the 
market,  and  are  under  no  necessity  of  having  recourse  to  a  reduction 
of  price  in  order  to  defeat  the  competition  of  foreign  manufacturers. 
All  is  in  our  own  power  ;  and  if  a  spirit  of  miserable  and  short-sighted 
rivalry  is  suffered  to  depress  the  hire  and  extinguish  the  comforts  of 
the  labouring  mechanic,  it  is  the  odious  spectacle  of  a  family  quar- 
relling among  themselves.  Secured  from  external  injury,  and  less 
affected  by  the  vicissitudes  of  war  and  peace  than  perhaps  any  other 
branch  of  commerce,  because  it  is  concerned  in  an  article  of  the  first 
necessity,  those  who  are  employed  in  it  have  only  to  remain  true  to 
themselves,  and  they  may  bid  defiance  to  every  efibrt  of  hostility.  "  If 
ye  bite  and  devour,"  says  holy  writ,  "  see  that  ye  are  not  consumed 
one  of  another."  What  can  be  more  detestable  than  to  see  a  system 
pursued  which  can  have  no  other  possible  termination  or  object  than 
the  sacrifice  of  the  happiness  of  the  many  to  a  few,  an  inconceivable 
few,  whose  prosperity  is  cemented  by  the  tears  of  a  distressed  and 
ruined  population ! 

In  order  to  give  employment  to  those  who  are  thrown  out  of  work, 
and  to  lighten  the  poor-rates,  some  parishes  have  established  manufac- 
tories of  their  own.  While  the  system  of  depression  continued,  it  was 
natural  to  have  recourse  to  an  expedient  which  accomplished  its  im- 
mediate object.  But  if  it  is  proposed  to  give  perpetuity  to  the  present 
statement,  that  practice  must  be  abandoned.  The  parishes  can  afford 
to  dispose  of  their  goods  at  little  or  no  profit ;  but  the  regular  manu- 
facturers, it  is  natural  to  expect,  will  not  submit  to  be  undersold  by  a 
class  of  persons  whom  they  cannot  but  regard  as  intruders :  hence 
arises  a  new  source  of  compethion,  and  a  consequent  depression  of 
wages.  It  is  in  vain  to  expect  that  the  manufacturer  will  adhere  to  a 
liberal  statement  of  wages  while  he  is  exposed  to  a  rivalry  conducted 
upon  unequal  terms. 

It  is  surely  not  too  much  to  hope,  that  the  good  sense  of  parishes 
will  prompt  them  to  put  a  speedy  end  to  this  practice,  and  that  no 
selfish  calculation  of  local  or  immediate  advantage  will  tempt  them  to 
support  a  system  pregnant  with  extensive  mischief. 

It  gives  the  writer  sincere  concern  to  hear  that  there  are  even  some 
framework  knitters  themselves  so  blind  to  their  own  interest  as  to 
refuse  to  contribute  to  the  general  fund.  With  men  who  are  resolved 
to  shut  their  eyes  on  consequences,  and  are  unwilling  to  sacrifice  the 
smallest  immediate  to  the  greatest  future  advantage,  it  is  in  vain  to 
reason,  since  they  have  renounced  the  prerogative  of  thinking  beings. 
As  the  frame  work  knitters  are  the  description  of  persons  immediately 
interested,  it  is  they  who  must  give  the  first  impulse.  It  is  in  vain  for 
those  to  look  for  help  who  are  unwilling  to  help  themselves ;  and 

Vol.  II.— I 


130  APPEAL  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF 

when  so  small  a  portion  of  their  earnings  is  sufficient,  with  the 
assistance  of  a  generous  public,  to  secure  them  from  the  recurrence 
of  recent  sufferings,  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  words  to  express  the 
folly  which  hesitates  to  make  the  necessary  sacrifice.  The  whole 
system  of  life  is  a  series  of  compromises  with  unavoidable  evil,  in 
which  material  inconveniences  are  endured  for  the  acquisition  of 
future  good  ;  and  he  who  aspires  to  enjoyments  unaccompanied  by  the 
necessity  of  self-denial  and  sacrifice  will  not  retain  them  long.  Such, 
also,  is  the  power  of  combination,  that  small  as  is  the  sum  which 
each  individual  is  called  to  disburse,  the  amount  of  numerous  contri- 
butions will  lay  a  solid  foundation  for  future  prosperity,  by  protecting 
them  from  the  encroachments  of  unfeeling  rapacity. 

It  is  asserted  there  are  some  manufacturers  who  have  absolutely 
prohibited  their  workmen  from  contributing  their  quota  to  the  fund. 
For  the  honour  of  human  nature,  we  hope  the  report  is  unfounded. 
We  are  reluctant  to  suppose  there  can  be  found  in  a  Christian  country 
men  so  callous  to  the  sentiments  of  humanity  as  to  interdict  the  means 
of  self-preservation,  or  of  temper  so  despotic  as  to  attempt  to  infringe 
on  the  essential  right  of  every  reasonable  being  to  consult  his  interest 
by  providing  for  future  contingencies.  Let  it  suffice  to  have  refused 
their  aid  to  their  fellow-creatures  while  struggling  in  the  waves,  without 
driving  them  back  when  they  have  gained  the  shore.  We  earnestly 
reconmiend  the  periodical  publication  of  a  correct  list  of  the  contribu- 
tors and  the  non-contributors,  together  with  the  reasons  assigned  for 
the  conduct  of  the  latter,  that  blame  may  be  imputed  only  where  it  is 
due,  and  the  patrons  of  oppression  (if  such  there  be)  may  be  made 
amenable  to  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion. 

From  a  partial  view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  object  before  us,  and 
of  the  extent  of  the  mischief  which  requires  to  be  remedied,  those 
districts  which  are  not  the  seat  of  manufacture  have  manifested  a  re- 
luctance to  contribute ;  a  narrow  and  mistaken  policy,  which  deserves 
the  severest  reprobation.  Whether  the  workmen  in  the  principal 
manufacture  of  a  populous  county  sink  into  wretchedness  and  beg- 
gary, or  are  maintained  in  a  state  of  comfort,  can  never  be  an  unin- 
teresting circumstance  to  any  part  of  its  inhabitants.  Humanity  apart, 
it  requires  but  little  attention  to  perceive  that  as  the  ability  to  purchase, 
and  consequently  the  extent  of  purchases,  is  regulated,  not  by  the 
wants,  but  by  the  pecuniary  resources  of  the  buyer,  to  those  who  have 
any  thing  to  dispose  of,  the  poverty  of  their  customers  must  neces- 
sarily be  injurious.  But  the  framework  knitters  and  their  families 
constitute  the  most  numerous  class  of  consumers  in  the  county,  and 
the  quantity  of  their  consumption  must  be  proportioned  to  the  extent 
of  their  earnings.  The  circulation  of  money  depends  as  much  on  the 
wages  of  labour  as  on  the  profits  of  stock ;  and  if  thirty  thousand 
persons  rise  from  abject  poverty  to  a  capacity  of  commanding  a  larger 
share  of  the  necessaries  and  many  of  the  comforts  of  life,  the  money 
which  procures  them  will  flow  into  every  channel,  so  as  to  benefit 
alike  the  tradesman,  the  agriculturist,  and  the  landed  proprietor.  The 
infusion  of  a  new  pabulum  of  life  into  the  extremities  will  strengthen 
and  invigorate  the  whole  body. 


THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  131 

Let  not  the  inhabitants  of  those  towns  and  villages  where  no  manu- 
facture is  carried  on  suffer  themselves  to  be  deluded  into  false  secu- 
rity, and  because  they  hear  not  the  sound  of  the  knitting-frame,  nor 
behold  its  productions  spread  before  their  eyes,  flatter  themselves  with 
the  hope  of  impvmity  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  distress.  The  ties 
of  civil  society  are  too  close  and  intricate,  the  reciprocal  action  of  its 
respective  parts  too  great,  to  admit  of  a  local  circumscription  of  ca- 
lamity. The  natural  effect  of  a  remarkable  depression  in  the  staple 
manufacture  of  a  county  is  to  spread  commercial  embarrassment  and 
distress  throughout  the  whole,  of  which  we  have  already  had  sufficient 
experience  in  the  difficulties  under  which  trade  of  every  description 
has  laboured,  in  consequence  of  the  paucity  of  money  and  the  diminu- 
tion of  demand.  The  tradesman,  it  is  true,  feels  the  effect  in  its  first 
stage  of  operation,  the  agriculturist  in  the  next,  in  a  diminished  con- 
sumption of  his  raw  produce. 

In  the  moral  system,  it  is  a  part  of  the  wise  arrangements  of  Pro-* 
vidence  that  no  m.ember  shall  suffer  alone ;  that  if  the  lower  classes 
are  involved  in  wretchedness  and  beggary,  the  more  elevated  shall  not 
enjoy  their  prosperity  unimpaired.  That  constitution  of  society  is 
radically  unsound  of  which  the  inferior  order  is  vicious  and  miserable  : 
a  wretched  and  degraded  populace  is  a  rent  in  the  foundation ;  or,  if 
we  may  be  allowed  to  change  the  figure,  a  taint  of  rottenness  at  the 
root  of  society,  which  will  infallibly  wither  and  decay  its  remotest 
branches.  Alarming  as  the  present  aspect  of  affairs  unquestionably 
is,  the  most  appalling  feature  of  the  times  is  the  prevailing  discontent 
of  the  lower  orders  ;  discontent,  arising  not  so  much  from  the  infusion 
of  speculative  principles  as  from  the  impression  of  actual  distress. 
Alleviate  their  distress,  convince  them  at  least  of  your  solicitude  to  do 
it,  and  you  extirpate  the  seeds  of  disaffection  far  more  eflectually  than 
by  all  the  arts  of  intimidation.  But  if  an  insensibility  to  their  suffer- 
ings in  the  higher  ranks  goads  them  to  despair,  nourishes  an  appetite 
for  change,  and  prepares  them  to  lend  themselves  to  the  sophistry  of 
artful  demagogues  and  unprincipled  empirics,  what  will  be  the  conse- 
quence but  a  divided  and  distracted  empire,  where  instead  of  uniting 
to  consolidate  the  resources  of  general  prosperity,  the  necessity  of 
employing  one  part  of  the  nation  in  the  coercion  or  punishment  of  the 
other  dissipates  its  efforts,  and  cripples  its  energy  ?  We  have  the 
highest  authority  for  asserting  that  a  "  kingdom  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand ;"  and  surely  no  schism  in  the  body  politic  can  be  more 
fatal  than  that  which  alienates  the  hands  from  the  head, — the  physical 
strength  of  society  from  its  presiding  intellect. 

It  may  be  objected  to  these  observations,  that,  however  just,  they 
are  irrelevant  to  the  subject  in  hand,  which  relates,  not  to  a  national,  but 
to  a  provincial  object.  To  which  the  reply  is  obvious,  that  every 
manufacturing  county  constitutes  an  important  part  of  the  nation,  and 
that  tliere  is  no  absurdity  in  supposing  that  the  arrangement  which  is 
adapted  to  the  situation  of  one  may  be  applied  with  equal  advantage 
to  another.  Be  this  as  it  may,  if  the  tranquillity  of  a  central  depart- 
ment of  the  empire  can  be  maintained  by  a  measure  Avhich,  while  it 

12 


132  APPEAL  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF 

rescues  a  numerous  description  of  persons  from  the  deepest  misery, 
is  beneficial  to  all  and  burthensome  to  none,  much  is  contributed  to 
the  fund  of  national  prosperity,  composed,  as  it  is,  of  separate  portions 
of  individual  enjoyment  and  security. 

Waiving,  for  the  present,  the  consideration  of  the  tendency  of  the 
measure  in  question  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  the  writer 
of  these  lines  must  be  permitted  to  avow  his  attachment  to  his  natale 
solum,  to  the  soil  that  gave  him  birth,  which  recalls  the  image  of  his 
youth,  with  those  affecting  recollections  which  nature  longest  retains, 
and  reluctantly  quits.  The  philanthropy  which  affects  to  feel  alike 
for  every  part  of  mankind  is  false  and  spurious  ;  that  alone  is  genuine 
which  glows  with  a  warmth  proportioned  to  the  nearness  of  its 
objects.  But  who  that  is  not  utterly  devoid  of  such  sentiments,  can 
compare  the  present  condition  of  this  county  with  the  past  without 
deep  emotion  ?  The  writer  well  remembers  it  when  it  was  the  abode 
of  health  and  competence  ;  a  temperate  and  unstrained  industry  diffused 
plenty  through  its  towns  and  villages ;  the  harsh  and  dissonant  sound 
of  the  loom  was  not  unpleasant  to  the  ear,  mingled  with  the  evidence 
of  the  activity  which  it  indicated,  and  the  comfort  it  produced ;  the 
advance  of  summer  invited  the  peasant  to  a  grateful  change  of  labour, 
while  the  village  poured  forth  its  cheerful  population  to  assist  in  pre- 
paring the  tedded  grass,  and  reap  the  golden  harvest ;  content  resided  in 
its  valleys,  joy  echoed  from  its  hills  ;  the  distresses  of  poverty  were 
almost  unknown,  except  by  the  idle  and  the  profligate,  its  natural 
victims ;  and  even  the  transition  from  peace  was  rather  heard  at  a  dis- 
tance than  felt  as  a  positive  calamity.  Some  provinces,  it  is  confessed, 
abounded  with  more  splendid  objects,  with  more  curious  specimens  of 
art,  and  grander  scenes  of  nature ;  but  it  was  surpassed  by  none  in 
the  general  diffusion  of  prosperity.  But  what  a  contrast  is  now  pre- 
sented, in  the  languid  and  emaciated  forms  and  dejected  looks  of  our 
industrious  mechanics,  Avho  with  difficulty  drag  their  trembling  limbs 
over  scenes  where  their  fathers  gazed  with  rapture,  "pleased  with 
each  rural  sight,  each  rural  sound !"  A  rapid  depression  of  wages, 
like  a  gangrene,  preys  upon  their  vitals,  and  exhausts  their  strength. 
The  crisis  is  arrived  which  is  to  decide  the  destiny  of  this  part  of  the 
kingdom ;  its  fate  for  the  present  generation,  to  say  the  least,  depends, 
under  Providence,  entirely  on  the  success  of  the  measure  now  in  agita- 
tion ;  and  how,  let  me  ask,  can  its  hereditary  nobility  exert  themselves 
more  laudably  than  by  stretching  forth  the  hand  to  save  from  ruin  the 
county  which  gave  them  birth,  and  includes  the  fund  of  their  wealth, 
the  scene  of  their  magnificence,  and  the  sepulchre  of  their  fathers  ! 

Though  this  appeal  is,  with  the  utmost  propriety,  made  to  them  in 
the  first  instance,  it  is  not  confined  to  that  elevated  order ;  there  is  not 
a  description  of  persons  within  the  limits  of  the  county  who  ought  to 
contemplate  the  crisis  with  indifference ;  and  so  essential  is  the  suc- 
cess of  the  present  expedient  to  every  hope  of  deliverance,  that,  what- 
ever be  his  station,  he  who  withholds  his  quota  from  the  general 
contribution  may  justly  consider  himself  as  accessary  to  its  ruin. 

If  there  be  any  motive  wanting,  in  addition  to  those  which  have 


THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  133 

been  already  urged,  to  excite  us  to  exertion,  it  is  found  in  the  exem- 
plary conduct  of  the  principal  sufferers.  Never  were  privations  so 
distressing  endured  with  more  manly  fortitude ;  and,  for  my  own  part, 
I  cannot  look  back  on  the  patience  and  the  constancy  displayed  through 
such  a  protracted  scene  of  suffering,  without  ascribing  it  to  a  calm 
confidence  in  that  Providence  which,  sooner  or  later,  never  fails  to 
interpose  in  behalf  of  such  as  trust  in  it,  and  which,  at  length,  has 
inspired  wisdom  to  discover,  and  resolution  to  apply,  the  only  remedy. 
They  have  deplored  their  misery,  they  have  exhibited  their  grievances 
to  the  view  of  the  public,  in  the  language  of  nature  and  of  truth,  but 
rarely,  if  ever,  have  they  forgotten  their  duties.  Far  from  shrinking 
from  the  necessity  of  making  the  first  sacrifice,  they  have  cheerfully 
come  forward  to  establish  the  present  fund,  to  which  they  have  engaged 
to  contribute  sixpence  a  week  out  of  their  scanty  earnings.  We 
will  not  suppose  for  a  moment  a  reluctance  on  the  part  of  the  public 
to  assist  and  encourage  a  description  of  persons  whose  welfare  is 
inseparably  combined  with  their  own,  and  who,  to  the  praise  of  patient 
endurance  under  the  severest  of  trials,  have  added  that  of  united  and 
manly  exertion  to  prevent  their  recurrence. 


A     REPLY 

TO  THE  PRINCIPAL  OBJECTIONS  ADVANCED  BY 
COBBETT    AND    OTHERS 

AGAINST    THE 

FRAMEWORK   KNITTERS'  FRIENDLY   RELIEF  SOCIETY. 


[Published  in  1821.] 


A   REPLY. 


The  virulent  opposition  made  to  the  Framework  Knitters'  Friendly 
Relief  Society — a  protective  policy  to  secure  themselves  from  the  pres- 
sure of  poverty  and  the  pains  of  hunger — may  well  excite  the  surprise 
of  the  reflecting  and  humane  part  of  the  public.  This  violence  with 
which  it  is  assailed  forms,  indeed,  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the 
business,  and  is  alone  sufficient  to  awaken  suspicion  of  a  design  not 
distinctly  avowed.  Its  opponents  are  loud  in  proclaiming  their  con- 
viction that  it  cannot  possibly  endure,  that  it  must  shortly  come  to  an 
end.  Why  then  not  leave  it  to  its  fate  ?  Why  display  this  anxiety  to 
accelerate  its  overthrow,  these  violent  and  persevering  efforts  to  crush 
the  feeble  and  precipitate  the  falling?  If,  as  they  contend,  it  contains 
within  itself  the  seeds  of  speedy  dissolution,  no  evil  can  result  from 
abandoning  it  to  the  operation  of  its  native  tendencies,  and  suffering  it 
to  die  a  natural  death.  Is  it  not  apparent  that  all  this  commotion 
and  effort  indicate  a  suspicion  that  it  is  not  so  fraught  with  the  ele- 
ments of  self-destruction  as  they  pretend,  and  that  it  requires  to  be 
powerfully  assailed. 

Its  opponents  confidently  assert  that  it  has  no  tendency  to  keep  up 
the  rate  of  wages,  that  these  are  regulated  by  causes  over  which  it 
has  no  control,  and  that,  in  defiance  of  every  possible  arrangement, 
they  will  infallibly  find  their  level.  If  such  is  really  their  conviction, 
their  zeal  is  still  more  preposterous.  For  where  is  the  policy  or  the 
prudence  of  exposing  themselves  to  the  suspicion  of  insensibility  to  the 
distresses  of  the  working  classes  by  opposing  a  scheme  Avhich  can 
have  no  eff*ects,  produce  no  consequences  while  it  continues,  and  the 
futility  of  which  will  be  shortly  apparent  to  all  ?  The  list  of  prices 
agreed  upon  between  the  employers  and  their  men,  they  assert,  is 
higher  than  the  state  of  the  trade  will  allow ;  and  that,  could  it  be 
maintained,  it  would  be  detrimental  to  the  manufacturing  interest  by 
preventing  the  sale  of  the  article.  Admitting  this,  it  would  afford  a 
sufficient  reason  for  opposing  a  measure  which  had  a  tendency  to  pro- 
duce that  efl^ect,  namely,  the  continuance  of  the  statement.  But  as  it 
is  loudly  affirmed  that  the  Framework  Knitters'  Union  has  no  such 
tendency,  but  will  leave  the  rate  of  wages  just  as  it  was,  why  this 
superfluity  of  zeal  in  opposing  what  can  produce  no  mischief?  If  such 
is  their  real  opinion,  they  are  fighting  with  a  shadow — combating  a 
phantom.  This,  however,  will  hardly  be  supposed.  Men  are  not 
accjastomed  to  exert  themselves  with  vehemence  against  an  object  of 


138  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

which  they  entertain  no  apprehension :  they  usually  proportion  their 
efforts  to  their  alarms. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  discern,  in  the  wanton  and  virulent  attack  of 
Cobbett  and  others  on  the  Framework  Knitters'  Society,  that  more  is 
meant  than  meets  the  ear — that  a  purpose  is  aimed  which  is  not  yet 
ripe  for  disclosure.  Of  this  we  may  be  assured,  that  there  lurks  at 
the  bottom  of  this  opposition  a  secret  persuasion  that  the  permanence 
of  the  Union  wUl  efl'ect  a  permanent  elevation  of  wages,  above  that 
extreme  point  of  depression  to  which  they  had  before  subsided. 

Here  the  first  question  which  arises  is,  whether  the  recompense  of 
labour  previous  to  the  establishment  of  a  fund  was  such  on  an  average 
as  to  enable  a  workman  to  procure  for  himself  and  his  family  the  ordi- 
nary necessaries  of  life.  For  the  answer  to  this  we  might  refer  the 
reader  to  our  opponents,  who,  with  some  variation  in  their  statements, 
unanimously  acknowledge  they  were  not  sufficient  for  that  purpose. 
The  anonymous  writer  who  styles  himself  "  An  Observer"  feebly  at- 
tempts, it  is  true,  to  palliate  the  wretched  condition  of  the  workmen  by 
referring  us  to  the  price  of  provisions,  not  in  Leicestershire,  be  it  re- 
membered, but  in  Taunton,*  and  by  informing  us  that  a  man  working 
a  frame  o{  thirty -two  or  finer  gauge  twelve  hours  a  day  can  earn  eight 
shillings  a  week.f  As  in  this  very  passage  he  is  declaiming  against 
"  extreme  statements  as  suspicious,"  who  would  suspect  that  the  very 
passage  which  censures  contains  an  example  of  it  ?  But  so  it  is  ;  for 
the  writer  is  informed  by  the  most  experienced  manufacturers  that  the 
kind  of  work  adduced  is  of  a  superior  order,  on  which  very  few,  in 
comparison,  are  employed ;  and  that  the  average  earnings  previous  to 
the  Union  were  from  five  shillings  and  sixpence  to  six  shillings  a  week, 
not  a  moiety  of  the  sum  adequate  to  the  decent  support  of  an  indus- 
trious family.  The  enormous  pressure  on  the  parishes  which  are  the 
principal  seats  of  manufacture  place  the  matter  of  fact  for  which  we 
are  contending  beyond  all  controversy.  But  that  the  "labourer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire"  is  as  much  the  dictate  of  reason  as  of  Scripture : 
and  if  there  be  any  spectacle  which  shocks  the  natural  feeling  of  justice, 
it  is  the  sight  of  industry  rewarded  with  famine — of  a  life  devoted 
to  severe  and  incessant  toil,  without  the  power  of  procuring  the  means 
of  its  own  support.  This  is  a  state  of  things  from  which  humanity 
recoils,  but  such  was  the  condition  of  the  greater  part  of  the  workmen 
previous  to  the  Union. 

The  next  question  is,  whether  the  sufferers  have  not  a  natural  right 
to  attempt  the  melioration  of  their  condition,  and  by  any  means  con- 
sistent with  the  peace  of  society,  and  the  inviolable  security  .of  pro- 
perty, endeavour  to  rescue  themselves  from  a  state  in  which  death  is 
preferable  to  life.  For  what  purpose,  let  me  ask,  is  reason  bestowed, 
if  not  to  assist  its  possessor  in  contriving  the  means  of  alleviating  his 
calamities  and  of  improving  his  situation  1  The  skill  and  labour  of 
the  poor  man  constitute  his  whole  possession,  and  he  has  a  right  to 
place  it  to  the  best  advantage,  for  precisely  the  same  reason  that  the 
rich  capitalist  is  entitled  to  make  the  most  advantageous  disposal  of  his 

♦  Observer,  p.  5,  t  Ibid.  p.  6. 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  139 

wealth.     He  has  consequently,  if  he  pleases,  a  right  to  set  aside  a 
portion  of  his   earnings  towards  securing  the  means  of  a  just  and 
natural  remuneration  of  his  industry.     I  call  that  a  just  and  natural 
remuneration  which  enables  him  to  procure  the  necessaries  of  life 
for  himself  and  his  family.     If,  by  the  exercise  of  foresight  and  self- 
denial,  he  can  evade  the  fatal  necessity  of  lying  entirely  at  the  mercy 
of  his  master,  where  is  the  impropriety  of  his  conduct,  or  of  what  have 
the  public  to  complain  ?     But  such  is  precisely  the  principle  of  the 
Framework  Knitters'  Union.     It  is  merely  the  policy  of  self-defence ; 
an  instrument  invented  by  themselves,  and  supported  principally  from 
their  own  resources,  for  securing  that  recompense  of  labour  which  their 
employers  with  much  unanimity  affirmed  to  be  reasonable,  and  which 
they  voluntarily  consented  to  give.     It  is  not  to  be  confounded  for  a 
moment  with  a  combination  to  raise  wages ;  it  is  merely  a  provision 
for  securing  the  terms  mutually  stipulated  between  their  employers  and 
themselves.     The  necessity  of  some  such  measure  was  demonstrated 
by  experience ;  a  statement  had  been  promised  on  a  former  occasion, 
but  it  was  found  that  while  there  was  a  surplus  of  labour  in  the  market, 
however  inconsiderable,  it  was  converted  into  a  means  of  effecting  a 
universal  depression,  far  below  the  scale  to  which  it  would  have  natu- 
rally descended,  in   consequence  of  the   deci'eased   demand.     That 
wages  should  decline  to  a  certain  extent  along  with  the  demand  is  the 
natural  consequence  of  the  vicissitudes  of  trade  ;  still  it  is  but  equitable 
that  they  should  bear  some  proportion  to  each  other.     We  will  suppose 
out  of  ten  thousand  hands  engaged  in  this  manufacture  that  one  thou- 
sand are  out  of  employ  ;  here,  supposing  the  remainder  to  labour  with 
only  their  usual  degree  of  assiduity,  there  are  nine-tenths  of  the  manu- 
facture produced  Avhich  was  made  when  they  were  all  at  work.     The 
probable  demand  has  diminished  one-tenth.     But  if  the  effect  of  this  is 
to  reduce  the  wages  nearly  one-half,  so  as  to  place  the  necessaries  of 
life  out  of  the  reach  of  the  workmen,  is  not  this  a  result  to  be  deplored  ? 
and  if  any  means  consistent  with  the  peace  of  society  can  be  contrived 
to  prevent  it,  ought  they  not  to  be  adopted  ?     In  this  case  it  is  in  vaia 
to  allege  that  the  depression  in  question  is  rendered  necessary  in  con- 
sequence of  the  decreased  demand,  because  they  bear  no  proportion 
one  to  the  other.     The  demand  is  by  the  supposition  diminished  one- 
tenth — the  wages  are  reduced  nearly  one-third.     Such  was  tlie  exact 
state  of  things  at  the  late  turn-out  in  Leicestershire.     A  proportion  of 
about  one  in  ten  were  unemployed,  and  this  surplus  of  labour  was 
converted,  by  a  process  not  very  creditable  to  the  humanity  of  its  au- 
thors, into  an  instrument  of  universal  depression  to  the  extent  already 
stated.     The  method  by  whicli  it  was  accomplished  is  extremely  sim- 
ple.    Those  who  were  out  of  employ  were  driven  by  the  distress  of 
their  situation  to  offer  their  services  on  terms  the  most  disadvantageous  ; 
the  offer  was  accepted ;  and  this  afforded  a  pretext  for  gradually  low- 
ering the  wages  of  the  rest,  who  had  no  alternative  but  to  submit  to 
the  abatement  proposed  or  quit  their  employ.     Further  reductions  were 
imposed,  which  for  the  same  reason  were  for  the  most  part  submitted 
to ;  till,  through  a  few  successive  stages,  the  wages  of  all  were  brought 


140  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

to  the  same  level.  Thus  the  wretched  workmen  were  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  acquiescing,  not  in  that  abatement  of  wages  which  was 
proportioned  to  the  diminished  demand,  but  in  the  terras  which  a  small 
minority  were  induced  to  accept ;  and  the  destitution  and  despair  of  a 
few  became  the  gauge  by  which  the  miseries  of  all  were  measured  out. 
If  there  is  a  man  to  be  foimd  who  is  perfectly  reconciled  to  such  a 
procedure,  who  sees  nothing  in  it  inconsistent  with  the  dictates  of  the 
most  refined  and  enhghtened  humanity,  his  mental  structure  is  such  as 
I  shall  never  envy. 

Since  in  the  case  before  us  it  is  the  surplus  of  labour  alone  which 
affords  the  facility  of  effecting  a  depression  so  destructive  by  obliging 
those  who  are  unemployed  to  engage  themselves  at  a  price  by  which 
they  could  not  live,  the  object  of  the  Union  is  simply  to  take  away  that 
necessity,  by  withdrawing  that  portion  of  redundant  labour  which  pro- 
duced it, — a  mode  of  proceeding  perfectly  analogous  to  that  which 
takes  place  in  every  branch  of  trade  and  manufacture.  He  who  is 
engaged  in  these  endeavours  invariably  to  adjust  the  extent  of  the 
supply  to  the  demand :  if  his  capital  enables  him,  he  withholds  his 
commodities  from  the  market  when  it  is  glutted,  and  reproduces  them 
when  they  are  more  eagerly  called  for.  Is  there  any  principle  of  po- 
litical economy  conceived  to  be  violated  by  this  discretionary  power  of 
the  manufacturer  to  adjust  his  productions  to  his  demand — to  withdraw 
them  from  the  market  at  his  pleasure,  Avhen  he  foresees  their  sale  will 
fetch  no  adequate  returns  ?  But  this,  mutatis  mutandis,  or  with  a  slight 
change  of  names,  is  exactly  the  case  under  present  discussion.  The 
labour  and  skill  of  the  mechanic  or  the  artist  constitute  the  article  he 
has  to  dispose  of;  and  the  Framework  Knitters'  Fund,  against  which 
such  a  clamour  has  been  raised  by  interested  and  designing  men,  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  a  provision  for  withholding  such  a  portion 
of  that  article  as  he  perceives  cannot  be  employed  without  ruinous 
consequences.  If  the  principles  of  political  economy  are  those  of  jus- 
tice and  common  sense,  they  will  authorize  no  more  interference  with 
the  labouring  mechanic  than  with  the  tradesman  or  manufacturer  ;  and 
if  the  manufacturer  is  not  compelled  to  dispose  of  his  productions  on 
destructive  terms,  why  should  the  mechanic  be  obliged  thus  to  dispose 
of  his  labour  ?  It  will  be  acknowledged,  it  is  more  difficult  for  the 
mechanic  to  adjust  his  labour  to  the  demand,  than  it  is  for  the  manu- 
facturer to  regulate  his  supply  by  the  state  of  the  market ;  but  this 
is  a  distinct  consideration  ;  the  Framework  Knitters'  Fund  is  contrived 
with  a  view  to  obviate  this  difficulty — it  has  already  done  it  to  a  great 
degree,  and  nothing  but  a  more  general  co-operation  of  the  M'orkmen, 
and  of  parishes,  is  wanted  to  enable  them  to  surmount  it  altogether. 

The  principles  of  political  economy  exclude  the  exercise  of  compul- 
sion only,  and  by  consequence  all  sort  of  legislative  interference  in 
commercial  transactions  :  they  were  never  understood  by  a  single 
writer  to  control  the  exercise  of  free  agency  in  any  class  of  the  com- 
munity, and  consequently  not  in  the  Leicestershire  framework  knitters. 
The  science  of  political  economy  assumes  for  its  basis  that  every  per- 
son best  understands  his  own  business ;  that  the  desire  of  improving 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  14I 

his  condition  is  inherent  in  man ;  and  that  when  every  one  is  left  to 
pursue  his  individual  interest  in  his  own  way,  without  injuring  others, 
the  combined  successes  arising  from  the  unfettered  endeavours  of  each 
to  advance  his  particular  interest  will  produce  a  greater  aggregate  of 
wealth  than  it  is  possible  to  realize  under  a  pervading  system  of  legis- 
lative control.  This  is  the  master-principle  of  that  science,  and  on 
this  principle  the  makers  of  stockings  must  be  supposed  to  understand 
their  own  interest  best ;  they  have  had  a  long  and  severe  training  in 
the  school  of  adversity  ;  and  they  are  unanimously  of  opinion  that  the 
establishment  of  a  fund  out  of  their  own  earnings,  in  aid  of  siich  as 
are  out  of  employ,  is  the  most  efficient  expedient  for  maintaining  an 
adequate  rate  of  wages.  Having  learned  from  experience  that  no 
agreement  with  their  masters  will  stand  unless  it  is  protected  by  such 
a  provision,  they  have  made  it  chiefly  from  their  own  resources, 
assisted  by  those  parishes  whose  interest  is  deeply  implicated  in  their 
support. 

As  far  as  the  fund  is  supported  by  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the 
men  and  of  the  parishes,  both  actuated  solely  by  a  view  to  their  own 
interest,  the  whole  proceeding  is  perfectly  consonant  to  the  principles 
of  political  economy,  correctly  interpreted  ;  and  for  the  voluntary  con- 
tributions of  the  public,  they  are  to  be  considered  as  entirely  pro- 
visionary,  to  be  continued  no  longer  than  is  necessary  to  give  stability 
to  an  infant  institution  ;  in  which  light  they  are  abundantly  justified 
by  the  principles  of  humanity,  which  are  paramount  to  every  other. 

The  total  want  of  candour  or  of  information  in  Mr.  Cobbett  is 
apparent  in  his  neglecting  to  advert  to  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the 
framework  knitters.  The  reader  of  his  coarse  invectives  would  be 
led  to  conclude  that  the  men  contributed  nothing,  that  it  Avas  merely  a 
project  of  the  public  to  aid  the  operative  class  in  a  particular  manufac- 
ture ;  when  in  fact  the  whole  affair  originated  with  themselves,  by 
whom  it  has  all  along  been  chiefly  supported,  and  on  whose  exertions, 
aided  by  the  parishes  which  are  deeply  interested  in  its  preservation, 
its  permanence  entirely  depends.  As  our  opponents,  there  is  little 
doubt,  "  hissed  for  this  fly,"  it  is  probable  he  was  not  put  in  possession 
of  a  circumstance  which  forms  the  nerves  and  sinews  of  the  Union, 
but  supplied  with  that  information  only  which  best  suited  their  purpose. 
A  serious  alarm  must  have  been  felt  to  prompt  them  to  have  recourse 
to  such  an  ally. 

"  Flecterc  si  ncqueo  snperos,  Acheronta  movebo." 

The  omission  of  this  fact  enables  him  to  invest  the  whole  business 
with  an  air  of  ridicule  for  which  a  just  statement  of  the  case  would 
have  furnished  no  pretence.  An  extensive  combination  of  the  public 
to  assist  the  framework  knitters  may,  considered  by  itself,  appear 
somewhat  romantic  ;  but  when  it  is  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  temporary 
support  to  an  institution  which  has  to  struggle  with  difficulties  arising 
from  the  ignorance  of  some  and  the  self-interested  perverseness  and 
prejudice  of  others,  it  assumes  a  different  character.  The  public  have, 
in  my  humble  opinion,  displayed  both  humanity  and  wisdom  in  lending 


142  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

their  aid  to  a  plan  which  has  already  effected  much  good,  and  promises 
in  its  fuller  development  to  accomplish  much  more  ;  but  their  assistance, 
however  meritorious,  must  be  considered  as  provisionary,  while  the 
permanence  of  the  plan  wholly  depends  on  the  exertions  of  the  work- 
men and  the  parishes.  It  is  on  the  principle  of  an  appropriation  of  a 
part  of  their  earnings  to  their  mutual  assistance,  and  as  a  means  of 
enabling  parishes  to  alleviate  a  numerous  class  at  the  least  possible 
expense,  that  its  merits  must  be  tried  and  its  advantages  estimated. 

The  "  Observer"  asserts  that  it  has  done  little  or  nothing  towards 
alleviating  the  general  distress.  The  truth  of  this  assertion,  however, 
may  be  safely  left  to  the  discernment  of  the  public.  Let  them  say 
whether  the  situation  of  the  workmen  has  not  been  materially  im- 
proved during  the  two  years  that  the  Union  has  subsisted.  When  its 
effect  has  been  to  raise  wages  at  least  one-third,  is  it  possible  to  doubt 
whether  such  an  augmentation  has  been  productive  of  a  proportionable 
increase  of  comfort ;  or  what  but  an  experience  of  its  advantages 
could  have  prompted  men  not  remarkably  gifted  with  self-denying 
habits,  to  persist  so  long  in  making  such  a  sacrifice  ? 

Cobbett  loudly  and  repeatedly  asserts  that  the  manufacturers  cannot 
afford  to  give  higher  wages,  referring  to  the  conduct  of  those  Notting- 
hamshire and  Derbyshire  houses  which  continue  to  stand  out,  as  a 
decisive  proof  of  his  position.  "  If  the  price,"  he  says,  "  can  be 
afforded,  why  do  not  those  hosiers  in  most  extensive  business  give  it? 
If  they  aver  that  they  can  afford  it,  why  do  they  not  give  it  ?  Mind, 
it  is  the  hosiers  in  most  extensive  business  that  aver  this,  and  yet  they 
do  not  give  the  price."*  It  is  a  sufficient  reply  to  these  triumphant 
interrogations,  that  the  most  respectable  hosiers  do  give  it,  and  that 
they  who  do  not  find  by  experience  that  they  can  procure  their  work 
to  be  done  on  lower  terms  ;  the  reason  of  which  is  a  surplus  of  labour 
in  the  market,  Avhose  operation  in  causing  a  universal  depression  has 
been  already  described. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  most  judicious  manufacturers  the  writer  has 
had  the  opportunity  of  consulting,  that  the  demand  for  hosiery  was 
little,  if  at  all,  diminished  at  the  period  immediately  preceding  the 
greatest  depression  of  wages,  nor  was  the  number  out  of  employ  pre- 
viously to  its  taking  place  more  than  ordinary.  The  system  of  depres- 
sion in  this  county,  it  is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety,  did  not  originate  in  a 
decreased  demand,  nor  did  it  proceed  in  any  assignable  proportion  to  that 
supposed  diminution ;  it  originated  entirely  in  a  vicious  competition  among 
a  few  individuals  for  the  monopoly  of  the  London  market.  It  was  the 
eagerness  of  certain  individuals  to  undersell  each  other  in  that  market 
which  gave  birth  to  the  system,  and  to  all  the  unspeakable  calamities 
which  have  resulted  from  it.  The  process  by  which  it  was  effected 
has  been  already  explained  so  often  that  I  am  afraid  to  repeat  it :  it 
was  brought  about  through  the  medium  of  such  as  were  out  of  employ, 
who  by  offering  themselves  on  inferior  terms  afforded  an  opportunity 
eagerly  embraced  of  gradually  reducing  the  rest  to  the  same  level. 
The  hosiers  must  surely  be  allowed  to  be  the  best  judges  what  wages 

*  Cobbett,  p.  70. 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  143 

tliey  can  afford,  a  great  majority  of  whom  have  recorded  their  jiulg. 
ment  on  this  subject  by  a  vohintary  agreement  to  give  the  statcmeM 
price  signed  and  attested  by  their  own  hand.  Ask  any  one  of  them 
who  may  have  departed  from  it  why  he  did  so  ?  and  if  the  reason  he 
assigns  is  founded  on  a  decreased  demand,  and  the  consequent  neces- 
sity of  depressing  wages,  I  woukl  almost  consent  to  yiekl  to  our  oppo- 
nents the  whole  question  at  issue.  No :  this  is  not  the  answer,  the 
writer  of  this  can  aver  from  his  own  knowledge  it  is  not :  it  is  always 
a  reference  to  some  otlier  person,  who  is  affirmed  (whether  truly  or 
not  signifies  notliing)  to  get  his  work  performed  at  a  cheaper  rate.  In 
answer  then  to  the  question  urged  with  so  much  exultation  by  Cobbett, 
"  If  the  manufacturers  can  afford  to  give  higher  wages,  why  are  they 
not  given  ?"  suffice  it  to  say,  that  men  are  often  little  disposed  to  give 
what  it  is  in  their  power  to  withhold ;  and  that  what  is  abated  in 
wages  is  either  added  to  profits  or  goes  to  enable  them  to  undersell 
their  competitors,  and  by  that  means  command  a  more  extensive  trade. 
Could  it  be  proved  that  tlie  statement  had  produced  a  glut  in  the 
market  by  exceeding  the  demand,  there  Avould  be  some  plausibihty 
in  Mr.  Cobbett's  representation ;  as  it  is,  nothing  can  be  more  futile. 

With  a  rudeness  congenial  with  his  habits,  he  grossly  insults  the 
anonymous  writer  who  styles  himself  "  Ilumanus,"  for  asserting  that 
men  of  little  or  no  capital  have  compelled  the  superior  manufacturers 
to  depress  the  wages  of  their  workmen  in  order  to  prevent  themselves 
from  being  excluded  from  the  market.  This  he  represents  as  the 
greatest  of  all  absurdities ;  telling  him  that  he  ought  to  have  styled 
himself  fool  or  hypocrite  for  hazarding  such  a  statement.  If  insolence 
were  the  proper  corrective  of  folly,  Mr.  Cobbett  would  of  all  men  be 
best  qualified  to  administer  the  cure,  though  on  that  supposition  his 
interference  would  be  impertinent  in  the  present  instance.  His  confident 
assertion  of  the  impossibility  of  a  fact  which  is  known  to  exist  by  all 
intelligent  men  in  the  county  is  a  specimen  of  his  ignorance  of  the 
trade  on  which  he  so  dogmatically  decides.  Men  of  little  or  no  capital 
are  incapable  of  bearing  stock ;  they  must  dispose  of  their  article  at 
whatever  price  they  can  get,  without  waiting  for  a  more  favourable 
season.  Hence  they  are  the  first  to  make  sacrifices,  to  diminish  the 
extent  of  which,  and  to  enable  them  to  sell  immediately  without  abso- 
lute loss,  they  are  under  peculiar  temptations  to  beat  down  the  wages 
of  their  workmen,  temptations  from  which  tlie  more  opulent  manufac- 
turer is  exempt ;  and  when  there  is  any  considerable  number  out  of 
employ  they  easily  find  the  means  of  effecting  their  object.  A  system, 
it  is  well  known  to  all  who  reside  in  tliis  county,  is  established  by 
which  an  extensive  trade  in  hosiery  is  conducted  by  persons  of  little 
or  no  capital.  Their  bills,  weekly  drawn  on  London,  are  accepted, 
which  is  equivalent  to  a  weekly  supply  of  capital ;  and  the  inducement 
to  afford  this  accommodation  is  the  extremely  low  price  of  the  goods 
which  are  manufactured  under  the  statement.  Is  there  a  hosier  in 
Leicestershire  who  will  venture  to  deny  the  justice  of  this  statement? 
Tn  fact,  this  system  has  been  carried  to  such  an  extent  that  the  most 
opulent  hosiers  have  of  late  succeeded  worst,  old-established  houses 


144  ri:ply  to  cobbett  and  others 

have  quitted  the  business  in  disgust,  and  the  trade  has  been  gradually 
transferred  to  those  who  have  profited  by  the  gradual  depression  of  wages. 

If  the  Framework  Knitters'  Union  is  dissolved,  it  is  universally 
allowed  they  will  sink  and  lower,  nor  can  any  limits  be  assigned  to 
which  they  may  not  descend.  Before  its  formation  nearly  half  the 
subsistence  of  the  workmen  was  drawn  from  the  parishes,  or  in  other 
words  from  the  public.  But  what  can  be  conceived  more  monstrous 
than  a  manufacture  carried  on  at  the  public  expense,  but  not  for  the 
public  benefit,  where  all  the  profits  are  appropriated  to  one  description 
of  persons,  while  the  public  are  taxed  to  an  enormous  amount  to 
enable  a  few  individuals  to  secure  to  themselves  those  advantages  I 
is  there  an  anomaly  in  the  social  system  more  prodigious  than  this,  or 
more  pregnant  with  the  most  alarming  consequences  1  Is  it  a  greater 
enormity,  let  me  ask,  to  be  compelled  to  support  a  numerous  herd  of 
sinecurists,  pensioners,  and  "  eaters  of  taxes,"  to  use  the  elegant 
phraseology  of  Mr.  Cobbett,  than  to  pay  half  the  wages  of  an  exten- 
sive manufacture,  without  deriving  from  it  one  farthing  of  profit,  while 
it  swells  out  a  putrid  stream  of  pauperism  which  overflows  the  land  1 
Mr.  Cobbett  perhaps  sees  nothing  in  such  a  state  repugnant  to  his 
feelings  ;  in  the  despair  of  the  poor,  and  the  utter  incapacity  of  the- 
parishes  to  relieve  their  wants,  he  seems  to  exult,  as  the  infallible 
prognostic  of  some  great  convulsion ;  but  there  are  those,  and  I  hope 
not  a  few,  who  will  contemplate  such  a  prospect  with  horror. 

He  is  anxious  to  impress  the  belief  that  the  distress  of  the  frame- 
work knitters  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  accumulation  of  taxes,  and  to  no 
other  cause.  This,  from  beginning  to  end,  is  his  darling  theme.  It 
is  far  from  my  intention  to  deny  that  the  general  decay  of  trade  and 
commerce  is  intimately  connected  with  the  enormous  weight  of  taxation  r 
or  that  it  is  in  vain  to  expect  a  return  to  national  prosperity,  unless 
some  efficient  means  are  devised  to  lighten  their  pressure.  It  is  equally 
certain,  however,  though  the  exhausting  effect  of  excessive  taxation 
may  have  prepared  a  way  for  the  evils  we  deplore,  that  a  system  has 
been  adopted  in  the  hosiery  trade  which  has  aggravated  the  calamity 
of  the  working  class  far  beyond  the  necessary  operation  of  that  general 
cause.  The  taxes  are  the  same  in  the  west  of  England  as  in  the 
midland  counties  ;  but  the  wages  in  the  clothing  districts  have  not  been 
reduced :  the  manufacture  of  cloth  has  been  all  along  adjusted  to  the 
demand.  The  weight  of  taxes  is  as  heavy  in  the  Staflbrdshire  potteries 
as  here ;  but  the  remuneration  of  labour  has  remained  steady  and 
uniform.  Less  work  is  given  out  in  proportion  as  the  demand  slackens  ; 
and  I  have  it  from  the  best  authority,  that  the  earnings  of  the  workmen 
are  at  this  moment  abundantly  adequate  to  their  means  of  subsistence. 
They  are  three  times  as  high  as  those  of  the  stocking-makers  were 
before  the  formation  of  the  Union.  By  the  system  pursued  in  these 
branches,  the  evils  resulting  from  a  decreased  demand  are  kept  within 
their  natural  limits ;  no  adventitious  ingredient  is  infused  into  the  cup, 
no  artificial  aggravation  added  to  their  sufferings.  But  in  the  hosiery 
manufacture  it  is  just  the  reverse :  the  calamity  indirectly  inflicted  on 
the  industrious  poor  by  means  of  such  as  are  out  of  employ  is  incalcvu' 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  145 

lably  greater  than  that  which  results  from  the  failure  of  employment ; 
and  the  destitution  of  a  part  becomes,  in  skilful  hands,  a  mighty  engine 
for  the  destruction  of  the  whole. 

What  is  the  remedy  proposed  by  our  opponents  ?  "  The  only 
effectual  relief,"  Humanus  says,  "  for  the  distresses  of  the  framework 
knitters,  is  for  a  great  part  of  the  present  hands  to  leave  the  trade,  and 
that  not  for  a  season,  but  entirely  and  for  ever."  We  needed  not  the 
information  of  this  sagacious  adviser,  that  the  root  of  the  mischief  lies 
in  a  redundancy  of  hands,  that  it  is  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  parents 
would  cease  as  much  as  possible  to  train  up  their  children  to  this  calling, 
that  masters  would  take  fewer  apprentices,  and  some  method  could  be 
discovered  to  lessen  the  number  engaged  in  this  branch  of  manufacture. 
This  is  all  very  desirable.  But  what  is  to  become  of  the  existing 
generation  ?  To  what  employ  can  they  turn  with  advantage  who  have 
acquired  no  other  craft,  and  whose  habits  totally  disqualify  them  for 
agricultural  labour,  were  it  to  be  procured  ?  Under  these  circumstances, 
to  advise  them  to  "retire  entirely  and  for  ever,"  is  to  recommend 
suicide  and  death.  Is  not  the  general  decay  of  trade  and  manufacture 
the  topic  of  universal  complaint,  and  must  not  the  greatest  difficulty 
be  encountered  where  all  the  ranks  of  employment  are  dense  with 
population  and  crowded  to  excess,  in  attempting  to  open  a  fresh 
career  for  their  industry  ?  Unless  something  more  practicable  and 
definite  is  suggested,  to  bid  them  retire  because  they  are  not  wanted, 
is  not  to  advise,  but  to  mock  them. 

The  formation  of  a  fund  towards  the  support  of  such  as  are  incapable 
of  procuring  work  but  upon  such  terms  as  are  ruinous  to  every  descrip- 
tion of  their  brethren,  presents  a  specific  remedy  for  the  existing  disorder, 
and  the  only  one  which  is  equivalent  to  a  cruel  mockery  of  their  woes. 

The  principal  sophism  which  pervades  the  strictures  of  Mr.  Cobbett 
and  others  on  this  subject,  is  a  vicious  generalization,  in  consequence 
of  which  he  imagines  he  has  sufficiently  accounted  for  the  wretched 
state  of  the  workmen  in  a  particular  manufacture,  by  referring  it  to  the 
cause  which  has  produced  a  declension  in  the  state  of  trade  and  manu- 
facture m  general ;  whence  he  infers  that  he  is  entitled  to  pour  ridicule 
and  contempt  upon  every  expedient  which  is  distinct  from  the  removal 
of  that  cause.  But  along  with  the  general  source  of  a  decline  in 
commerce  there  are  a  number  of  particular  circumstances  which  must 
be  noticed,  in  order  to  account  for  that  state  of  depression  in  which 
some  branches  are  found,  in  comparison  with  others.  As  far  as  our 
political  embarrassments  alone  are  concerned,  their  operation  must  be 
equally  disadvantageous  to  every  species  of  productive  labour,  to  every 
kind  of  trade  and  manufacture  whatever.  But  these  are  not  all  equally 
depressed,  which  they  must  have  been  if  the  political  state  of  the 
nation  was  alone  sufficient  to  account  for  all  the  phenomena.  The 
fact  is,  that  while  every  department  of  manufacture  is  probably  injured 
by  our  pecuniary  embarrassments,  the  working  classes  in  some  are 
found  to  be  in  a  much  more  favourable  situation  than  in  others.  The 
remuneration  of  labour,  for  example,  in  the  western  clothing  districts, 
in  the  Staffordshire  potteries,  I  might  add  in  no  part  of  the  kinedom, 

Vol.  II.— K 


146  RFPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

has  been  depressed  as  it  has  been  here.  The  reason  of  this  has  been 
again  and  again  explained ;  it  has  arisen  from  the  iUiberal  advantage 
which  has  been  taken  of  a  surplus  of  labour ;  whQe  in  the  districts  just 
referred  to,  tliat  practice  has  not  been  adopted,  less  work  is  given  out 
Avhen  less  is  demanded,  and  the  earnings  are  sufficient  to  procure  all 
the  necessaries,  and  some  of  the  comforts  of  life.  As  the  distemper 
is  local  and  specific,  the  remedy  must  be  of  the  same  description. 

The  list  of  prices  agreed  upon  is  considerably  less  than  is  sufficient 
to  maintain  the  condition  which  honest  industry  ought  ever  to  occupy, 
decidedly  less  than  might  be  afforded  in  a  more  prosperous  state  of  the 
country.  It  is  such,  however,  as  the  great  body  of  the  masters  have 
declared  themselves  able  to  give,  while  they  affirm  they  can  do  no  more. 
Since  their  conviction  of  their  ability  to  do  this  is  a  deliberate  recorded 
opinion,  let  the  reader  judge  of  the  audacity  of  Mr.  Cobbett  in  the 
following  assertion :  "  He,  Humanus,"  says  Mr.  Cobbett,  "  affirms 
that  the  hosiers  in  the  most  extensive  business  aver  they  can  afford 
the  statement  prices.  We  might  treat  this  as  nothing,  we  might  call 
it  a  falsehood,  because  it  is  against  reason,  and  because  the  averment 
is  not  produced  and  attested  ;  we  have  the  bare  word  of  an  anonymous 
Avriter  for  it ;  that  is  ail,  and  that  is  nothing."  "  We  might  call  it  a 
falsehood  ;"  Certainly  Mr.  Cobbett  might,  who  displays  throughout 
such  an  infinite  familiarity  with  the  "  father  of  lies  ;"  but  let  us  hope 
no  other  man  could  be  found  who  would  stigmatize  as  a  falsehood  the 
assertion  that  such  is  the  averment  of  the  manufacturers,  after  they 
liad  signed  and  attested  it  with  their  own  hand.  This  recorded  opinion 
is  an  unanswerable  confutation  of  the  assertion  so  often  repeated  by 
our  opponents,  that  the  hosiers  cannot  afford  the  statement  price ;  for 
surely  they  will  not  be  so  absurd  as  to  impute  to  them  a  formal  reso- 
lution of  giving  wages  which  they  were  conscious  at  the  time  they 
could  not  well  afford.  It  may  therefore  be  assumed  as  a  fact,  placed 
beyond  all  dispute,  that  the  statement  proposed  is  such  as  will  leave  a 
reasonable  rate  of  profits  to  the  hosiers, — from  whence  we  adduce  two 
conclusions  ;  first,  that  the  assertion  of  those  who  maintain  that  the 
statement,  were  it  adhered  to,  would  be  ruinous  to  the  trade,  is  a  false- 
hood, because  it  is  formally  contradicted  by  the  persons  who  must  be 
allowed,  in  what  immediately  concerns  their  own  interest,  to  be  the 
best  judges  :  secondly,  that  besides  the  operation  of  taxes  in  deterio- 
rating wages,  other  causes,  of  a  more  specific  nature,  have  contributed 
to  produce  ihat  effect,  and  that  consequently  the  whole  argumentation  of 
]\Ir.  Cobbett,  which  proceeds  upon  the  denial  of  this,  falls  to  the  ground. 

It  is  repeatedly  objected  by  the  "Observer,"  that  the  proposed 
statement  can  never  become  permanent,  because  it  is  impossible  to 
induce  the  masters  to  adhere  unanimously  to  their  agreement.  To 
this  I  answer,  that  such  unanimity  is  not  contemplated,  nor  is  it  ne- 
cessary. The  principal,  perhaps  the  only  benefit  of  the  agreement  is, 
that  it  stamps  a  legal  character  on  the  proceedings  of  the  men,  which 
might  otherwise  expose  them  to  the  penalties  of  combination.  If  they 
l)ecome  sufficiently  enlightened  to  their  own  interests,  to  afford  an 
adequate  support  to  the  fund,  the  surplus  labour  will  be  disposed  of, 
and  it  will  no  longer  be  in  the  power  of  those  who  may  be  disposed  to 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  147 

convert  it  into  an  instrument  of  universal  depression.  The  list  of  prices 
agreed  upon  at  Nottingham,  in  the  year  1819,  to  which  the  "  Observer" 
refers,  produced  no  permanent  effect  in  Nottinghamshire  nor  in  Derby- 
shire, because  no  fund  was  established  in  those  counties  to  support  it ; 
in  Leicestershire  the  same  agreement  was  followed  by  the  most  efficient 
consequences,  because  it  received  that  support.  And  this  is  the 
reason,  and  the  only  reason,  that  every  thing  reverted  so  soon  to  its 
former  state  ;  not,  as  this  writer  affirms,  in  consequence  of  a  diminu- 
tion of  demand  produced  by  the  statement ;  for  had  this  been  the  cause, 
the  effect  would  have  been  felt  in  Leicestershire  equally,  but  it  was 
not,  solely  because  the  surplus  of  labour  was  removed  by  the  provi- 
sions of  the  fund. 

The  "  Observer"  further  remarks,  that  "  it  borders  on  the  ludicrous 
to  talk  of  men  plunged  in  the  very  depths  of  despair,  from  their  scanty 
earnings  raising  a  fund  for  their  unemployed  associates ;  and  unless 
they  can  do  this,  their  project  must  fail."  This  writer  forgets  that  he 
had  before  represented  these  very  men  in  a  tolerably  comfortable  state, 
referring  us  for  proof  to  the  price  of  provisions  in  the  Taunton  market. 
It  suited  the  scope  of  his  argument  then  to  elevate  their  condition, 
whom  he  now,  for  a  similar  purpose,  '■'■plunges  into  the  very  depths 
of  despair.''''  The  reader  will,  in  a  moment,  perceive  what  credit  is 
due  to  a  writer  who  is  entangled  in  such  contradictions,  Avho  attributes 
to  the  same  persons  comfort  and  despair,  just  as  it  suits  his  conveni- 
ence. But  passing  these  inconsistencies,  the  reply  is  obvious,  that  if  the 
manufacturers  in  the  neighbouring  counties  imitate  the  example  of  this, 
tlieir  men,  no  longer  plunged  into  the  very  depths  of  despair,  will  be 
incomparably  more  able  to  subscribe  sixpence  a  week  to  the  fund,  than 
to  procure  subsistence  in  their  present  circumstances.  The  "  Observer" 
must  be  aware  that  their  competence  to  contribute  their  quota  is  as- 
sumed only  on  the  supposition  of  the  statement  being  given ;  and  he 
must  not  be  permitted  to  change  suppositions  backwards  and  forwards, 
with  the  same  dexterity  that  he  converts  comfort  into  despair.  Since 
it  is  allowed  by  our  opponents,  tliat  where  no  fund  exists,  the  workmen 
are  "  in  the  depths  of  despair,"  the  only  question  is,  what  must  be 
done  ?  How  is  the  intolerable  load  under  which  they  are  groaning  to 
be  alleviated  or  removed  ?  Mr.  Cobbett's  grand  panacea  is,  recourse 
to  the  parishes ;  not  that  he  is  so  ignorant  as  to  suppose  it  possible 
they  should  afford  effectual  relief,  but  that  he  foresees  other  effects 
resulting  from  it,  which  he  is  evidently  much  more  anxious  to  realize. 
"  But,"  says  he,  "  are  you  to  have  no  redress  ?  Are  you  to  starve,  in 
short  ?  No  :  no  man,  woman,  or  child  is  to  starve  ;  the  law  says  so, 
and  rely  upon  the  law.  A  man  works  constantly ;  he  is  sober,  he 
wastes  notliing.  His  master  can  or  Avill  give  him  no  more  ;  and  with 
what  he  gets  he  is  starving,  with  his  family.  Now  what  says  the  law  ? 
Why,  that  he  shall  be  relieved,  that  he  shall  share  out  of  the  common 
stock,  out  of  that  which  was  originally  one  man's  as  well  as  another's  ; 
out  of  that  which  God  gave  for  all — out  of  the  land.'^*  But  is  he  not 
aware  that  the  pressure  of  parish  rates  is  already  almost  intolerable ; 

*  Cobbeu.  p.  97. 

K2 


148  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

that  they  are  levied  on  thousands  who  are  themselves  on  the  brink 
of  pauperism ;  and  that  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  they  have  re- 
duced the  value  of  land  to  such  a  state,  that  even  were  they  occupied 
free  of  rent,  the  farmer  could  hardly  subsist  by  the  produce  ?  It  is 
true  they  may  not  have  reached  the  point  which  Mr.  Cobbett  triumph- 
antly contemplates,  the  utter  ruin  and  extinction  of  landed  proprietors  ; 
but  they  have  already  attained  a  portentous  magnitude,  which  no  lover 
of  his  country  can  contemplate  without  dismay. 

This  seems  to  be  the  proper  place  for  noticing  a  monstrous  position 
advanced  by  this  writer,  with  a  confidence  which  can  only  be  surpassed 
by  its  falsehood.  "  Viewing  the  thing  in  its  true  light,"  he  says, 
"  what  is  the  nation,  and  particularly  the  landed  proprietor,  to  gain  by  an 
additional  sum  being  given  to  you  in  wages  1  What  is  he  to  gain  by 
a  million  of  money  paid  to  stocking  weavers  more  than  is  now  paid 
to  them  ?  Is  there  not  a  million  less  to  be  laid  out  by  somebody  else  ? 
If  the  labourer  pays  a  crown  a  year  more  for  stockings,  has  he  not  a 
crown  less  to  lay  out  in  bread  and  beer  ]  If  indeed,  the  additional  million 
paid  to  you  were  to  be  expended  by  you,  or  flung  into  the  sea ;  or  if 
the  additional  mdlion  were  to  drop  down  into  your  hands  from  the  clouds, 
in  either  of  these  cases  there  might  be  some  sense  in  Humanus's  argu- 
ment :  as  the  thing  is,  it  is  nonsense."*  This  is  the  reasoning,  be  it 
remembered,  of  the  man  who  in  the  same  pamphlet  ascribes  all  our 
calamities  "  to  so  large  a  portion  being  taken  from  those  who  labour,  to 
be  given  to  those  who  do  not  labour."!  If  the  above  reasoning  is  correct, 
it  will  follow  that  the  value  of  land  would  not  be  diminished,  though  the 
stocking  weavers  earned  nothing  at  all,  but  were  entirely  supported  by 
the  parish.  On  this  supposition,  it  is  true  they  would  have  no  wages, 
but  some  other  persons  possess  them,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing, 
their  amount,  which  if  they  had  not,  they  would  be  less  able  to  pur- 
chase the  produce  of  the  soil,  in  exact  proportion  to  that  amount. 
More  error  and  absurdity,  I  will  venture  to  assert,  were  never  penned 
within  the  same  compass  than  are  contained  in  the  paragraph  just 
quoted.  It  proceeds  on  the  following  extraordinary  assumptions ; 
First,  That  all  the  purchasers  of  hosiery  are  also  purchasers  of  the 
other  parts  of  the  produce  of  the  British  soil,  and  that  in  the  same 
proportion.  For  if  this  is  not  the  case ;  if  they  either  do  not 
purchase  the  other  parts  of  our  produce  at  all,  or  not  in  the  same 
proportion,  how  will  it  follow  that  they  must  necessarily  buy  just  so 
much  less  of  our  corn,  and  of  every  other  article  which  the  land 
produces,  because  they  buy  more  of  our  hosiery !  Look  at  foreign 
nations :  our  stockings  make  their  way  into  a  large  proportion  of  the 
habitable  world ;  but  are  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  regions  into  which 
they  penetrate  accustomed  to  purchase  equal  proportions  of  the  other 
branches  of  our  rude  produce  ]  The  far  greater  part,  it  is  well  known, 
purchase  none  of  these,  and  few  if  any  in  the  same  proportion. 

Secondly,  It  assumes  for  granted  that  all  who  purchase  hosiery 
expend  to  the  utmost  extent  of  their  income,  so  that  if  they  give  five 
shillings  a  year  more  for  hosiery,  they  must  necessarily  lay  out  five 
shillings  less  in  other  articles  of  consumption.     "  They  have,  it  seems, 

*  Cobbett,  p.  91.  t  Ibid.  p.  117 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  149 

just  so  much  that  they  can  lay  out  upon  stockings."*  It  must  be 
evident  to  the  intelligent  reader  that  this  mode  of  reasoning  presup- 
poses an  exact  equahty  of  expenditure  and  of  income,  and  that  conse- 
quently it  is  applicable  only  to  such  whose  circumstances  oblige  them 
to  practise  in  every  instance  the  strictest  and  most  rigid  economy. 
But  the  chief  purchases  of  manufacture  are  made  by  consumers  of  a 
very  different  description  ;  by  persons  whose  situation  enables  them  to 
sustain  a  much  greater  advance  of  price  than  is  here  mentioned,  with- 
out the  necessity  of  abridging  themselves  in  other  modes  of  indulgence. 
If  Mr.  Cobbett's  reasoning  were  just,  the  demand  for  every  article,  at 
distinct  periods,  would  be  exactly  pi-oportioned  to  its  price ;  but 
experience  shows  the  contrary,  that  the  demand  is  not  regulated  solely 
by  the  price,  but  by  many  other  concurrent  causes,  which  it  is  need- 
less at  present  to  specify.  He  forgets  the  "  eaters  of  taxes,"  the 
nobility,  the  gentry,  the  landed  proprietors,  the  opulent  merchants,  the 
thriving  tradesmen,  together  with  the  myriads  of  others,  who  are  in 
easy  circumstances  and  live  within  their  income,  all  of  whom  wear 
stocldngs,  and  can  well  afford  an  advance  of  a  few  shillings  on  that 
head,  without  a  proportional  diminution  in  every  other  branch  of 
expenditure.  Though  this  class  of  the  community  may  not  be  the 
most  numerous,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  they  are  the  chief  purchasers 
of  manufacture. 

Thirdly,  His  argument  goes  upon  the  supposition,  that  it  is  of  no 
consequence  to  the  public  where  wealth  is  deposited,  provided  it  is  not 
"  thrown  into  the  sea."  Admitting  the  truth  of  this,  how  can  the  taxes 
be  the  cause  of  our  calamities,  as  he  asserts,  "  by  taking  from  those 
who  labour,  and  giving  to  those  who  do  not  labour  P't  and  how  unrea- 
sonable and  absurd  his  violent  outcry  against  the  landholders,  pen- 
sioners, and  sinecurists !  To  the  accumulation  of  Mealth  in  their 
hands  he  attributes  all  our  distresses,  who  yet  are  as  little  disposed, 
we  presume,  as  any  men  "  to  throw  it  into  the  sea." 

May  they  not  retort  upon  him  and  say,  "  You  ascribe  the  ruin 
of  the  nation  to  the  transfer  of  its  wealth  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
do  not  labour  from  those  who  do.  But  our  money  is  employed  either 
in  loans  or  in  consumption.  The  capital  we  lend  is  employed  by 
merchants  and  manufacturers  in  maintaining  productive  labour,  while 
the  money  we  consume  tends  immediately,  by  taking  off  the  produce, 
to  keep  up  the  vadue  of  land  ;  and  it  is  certain,  considered  under  either 
mode  of  operation,  that  were  it  transferred  to  others,  we,  its  present 
possessors,  should  have  so  much  less  to  employ  or  to  spend  V  1  am 
far  from  supposing  this  reasoning  would  be  correct ;  but  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  affirming  it  is  the  legitimate  consequence  of  his  principle, 
which  is,  that  the  landed  proprietor  would  not  be  benefited  by  the 
improved  condition  of  the  working  classes,  nor  injured  even  by 
the  extinction  of  wages,  unless  "  they  were  thro^vn  into  the  sea." 
The  operative  part  of  the  people,  those  we  mean  who  are  immediately 
employed  in  productive  labour,  probably  compose  much  less  than  a 
moiety  of  the  whole  nation  :  the  remaining  part  of  the  population  must, 
as  far  as  the  present  argument  is  concerned,  be  classed  with  those  who 

♦  Cobbett,  p.  90.  T  Cobbett,  p.  98. 


150  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

do  not  labour.  Suppose  the  wages  of  the  stocking  weavers  were 
universally  depressed  so  as  to  be  totally  inadequate  to  their  support, 
which  was  actually  the  case  before  the  late  regulations  ;  in  consequence 
of  the  competition  among  the  manufacturers,  a  correspondent  abate- 
ment of  the  price  of  the  article  would  be  the  necessary  consequence  ; 
hosiery  would  be  just  so  much  the  cheaper,  and  the  deduction  from  the 
wages  being  subtracted  from  the  price  would  be  in  fact  given  to  the 
purchasers.  A  very  large  proportion  of  these  however,  consist  of 
such  as  do  not  labour.  Here  then  we  have  an  example  of  the  transfer 
of  property  from  "  those  who  do,  to  those  who  do  not  labour,"  which 
Mr.  Cobbett  represents  as  the  root  and  origin  of  all  our  evils  ;  yet, 
strange  to  tell,  this  same  writer  affirms  that  the  process  by  which  this 
is  effected  is  productive  of  no  injury  to  the  public.  A  portion  of  the 
wages  withheld  would,  in  consequence  of  the  abatement  of  price,  pass 
into  the  hands  even  of  the  placemen,  pensioners,  and  sinecurists  them- 
selves. Let  me  ask  whether  this  would  not,  on  his  own  principles, 
be  a  direct  transfer  of  so  much  money  from  those  "  who  labour  to 
those  who  do  not  ?"  yet  is  he  guilty  of  the  absurdity  of  saying  that  an 
arrangement  which  he  asserts  to  be  so  destructive  to  the  whole  nation 
in  every  other  instance,  would  in  this  produce  no  inconvenience  what- 
ever, either  to  the  public  or  to  the  landed  proprietor. 

The  reader  is  probably  by  this  time  weary  of  attending  to  the  pal- 
pable contradictions  of  this  arrogant  and  superficial  declaimer  :  suffice 
it  to  remark  that  it  requires  Utile  or  uo  penetration  to  perceive  that  the 
extinction  of  wages,  and  the  consequent  absolute  pauperism  of  the 
working  classes,  would  effect  the  deepest  depression  of  the  value  of 
land  in  every  manufacturing  district ;  and  that  no  remedy  would  be 
found  in  the  decreased  price  of  the  article,  since  the  saving  arising 
from  it  would  be  reaped,  not  by  the  landholder,  but  by  the  public,  in 
minute  and  almost  invisible  portions  through  all  its  diversity  of  ranks, 
and  by  foreign  nations. 

Mr.  Cobbett,  with  much  confidence  and  equal  exultation,  predicts 
the  destruction  of  the  landed  interest  as  the  certain,  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  present  crisis.  Whatever  probability  may  attach  to 
these  dismal  forebodings  arises  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  from  the  alarming 
increase  of  poor-rates,  and  this  latter  from  the  inadequate  remune- 
ration of  labour.  For  what  is  it  else,  except  in  time  of  sickness,  which 
drives  a  poor  man  to  have  recourse  to  parish  relief?  Were  the  rates 
of  wages  sufficient  to  procure  with  facility  the  means  of  human 
subsistence,  is  it  possible  to  doubt  that  the  parochial  burdens  would 
be  most  essentially  alleviated,  that  the  farmer  and  the  householder 
would  find  it  much  easier  to  pay  the  ordinary  rent  ?  The  ingenuity 
of  Mr.  Cobbett,  however,  has  enabled  him  to  discover  that  were  a 
million  a  year  added  to  the  wages  of  labour,  the  landed  proprietor 
would  not  derive  the  advantage  of  a  farthing. 

These  and  such  like  extravagances  will  be  quite  sufficient  to  satisfy 
the  reader  that  he  is  a  popular  declaimer,  not  a  philosopher ;  a  firebrand, 
not  a  luminary.  He  emits  fire  and  smoke  in  abundance,  like  a  volcano, 
but  the  whole  effect  is  to  desolate,  not  to  enlighten.  His  principal 
artifice  consists  in  the  exhibition  of  a  few  specious  and  bold  generali- 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  151 

ties,  which  he  ilhistrates  and  confirms  by  a  few  prominent  Aicis  culled 
for  his  purpose,  witliout  the  slightest  attempt  at  that  patient  induction 
and  inquiry  which  alone  lead  to  solid  and  useful  results.     Shrewd, 
intemperate,  presumptuous,  careless  of  the  truth  of  his  representations 
and  indilferent  to  their  consequences,  provided  they  make  an  impression, 
he  is  well  qualified,  it  must  be  confessed,  by  his  faults  no  less  than 
his  talents,   by  his   inflammatory  style  and  incendiary  spirit,  ibr  the 
office  he  assumes,  to  scatter  delusion,  to  excite  insurrection,  the  Poly- 
phemus of  the   mob,  "  the  one-eyed  monarch  of  the  blind."      His 
strictures,  however,  on  the  topic  under  consideration  are  pregnant  with 
instruction  it  was  not  his  design  to  communicate.      Whatever  the 
inhabitants  of  this  county  may  think  of  the  TVamework  Knitters'  Union, 
he  plainly  foresees  in  the  consequences  of  its  failure,  the  materials  of 
ferocious  delight ;  he  sees  without  the  aid  of  inspiration  an  inundation 
of  miseries  to  follow,  paupers  crowding  by  thousands  to  the  doors  of 
overseers,  parishes  dismayed  and  perplexed,  the  poor  clamouring  for 
bread  which  cannot  be  given  them,  and  rushing  upon  the  point  of  the 
bayonet  to  avoid  a  more  cruel  and  lingering  death  ;  the  commencement 
of  that  tempest,  in  aMord,  which  he  boasts  having  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  witness,  which  is  to  shake  all  that  is  stable,  to  prostrate  all  that  is 
great,  and  to  accumidate  a  pile  for  the  elevation  of  future  demagogues. 
Rome  trembled  when  Cataline  rejoiced.     Let  the  friends  oi  peace 
and  order  then,  let  the  landed  proprietor  especially,  take  warning ;  they 
atand  upon  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  from  which,  if  they  sufier  them- 
selves to  be  precipitated,   it  will  be  no  small   aggravation  of  their 
calamity  to   perceive  the  ease  with  which  it  miglit  have  been  pre- 
vented ;  together  with  the  contemptible  agency,  and  the  flimsy  sophistry 
which  accelerated  their  overthrow.     If  it  is  some  consolation  to  the 
fallen  to  have  perished  by  a  noble  hand,  the  indignity  of  being  baffled 
and  deluded  by  the  author  of  the  Political  Register  must  be    more 
humiliating  than  words  can  express. 

Having  extended  these  strictures  beyond  my  original  design,  and 
exhausted,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the  patience  of  my  readers,  it  is  my 
intention  to  detain  them  no  longer  than  while  I  notice  an  objection  to 
the  Union,  more  plausible  than  any  of  the  preceding,  though,  for  the 
reasons  which  follow,  entirely  destitute  of  solidity. 

It  is  alleged  by  its  opponents,  that  the  provision  of  a  fund  for  the 
support  of  such  as  are  out  of  employ  afibrds  a  direct  encouragement 
to  idleness,  the  most  baleful  habit  a  poor  man  can  contract.  This  ob- 
jection, could  it  be  sustained,  would  undoubtedly  be  weighty  ;  whetl)er 
it  can  or  not,  must  depend  upon  the  previous  question.  Will  the  num- 
ber out  of  employ  be  permanently  greater  if  the  stntcmcnt  continues, 
than  on  the  contrary  supposition  ?  That  it  may  have  that  eflect  for  a 
short  time,  we  are  not  disposed  to  deny :  the  manufacturers  liaving 
suspended  their  operations  to  a  considerable  degree,  some  hoping  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  society,  others  from  an  apprehension  of  that 
event,  it  is  probable  the  moment  it  were  announced,  all  hands  would 
be  set  to  work.  A  spirit  of  vigour  and  activity  would  seem  for  a 
moment  to  pervade  tlie  trade.  But  look  a  step  or  two  further.  The 
number  eniployed  in  manufacturing,  the  strained  exertions  they  would 


152  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS 

be  necessitated  to  make  to  compensate  for  the  lowness  of  their  wages, 
and  the  deteriorated  state  of  the  article  would  combine  to  produce  a 
glut,  which  reacting  both  in  the  wages  and  the  price,  would  eventu- 
ally, and  at  no  great  distance  neither,  produce  a  greater  surplus  of 
labour  than  exists  at  present.  As  my  opinion  on  such  a  subject  may 
be  deemed  of  little  value,  I  must  be  allowed  to  add,  that  it  perfectly 
coincides  with  that  of  the  most  intelligent  men  in  the  trade,  and  is 
strongly  corroborated  by  the  fact,  that  there  were  as  many  out  of  work 
at  the  time  when  wages  were  the  most  depressed,  as  at  other  seasons. 
Many  of  them  wrought  sixteen  instead  of  twelve  hours  a  day  ;  the 
fabric  produced  was  also  of  a  deteriorated  quality,  incapable  of  being 
vended  in  foreign  markets,  insomuch,  that  I  am  credibly  informed,  that 
in  different  parts  of  Europe,  in  Germany  particularly,  its  being  known 
to  be  British  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  refusing  it.  The  demand  for 
labour  then,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  would  not  be  permanently 
augmented  by  returning  to  the  former  system,  and  consequently  the 
number  out  of  employ  not  diminished.  For  reasons  already  specified, 
it  is  almost  certain  the  reverse  would  be  the  case,  and  the  surplus 
labour  keep  pace  with  the  redundant  superfluity  of  manufacture. 

The  project  of  raising  it  by  lowering  wages  has  been  tried,  and 
found  unavailing ;  and  whatever  attempts  are  made  to  renew  it,  will 
resemble  the  labour  of  Sisyphus ;  it  will  be  rolling  a  stone  which  will 
for  ever  fall  back. 

The  sum  proposed  to  be  paid  from  the  fund  to  such  as  are  out  of 
work,  is,  at  the  most,  six  shillings  and  sixpence  a  week,  sufficient 
indeed  to  preserve  them  from  lying  utterly  at  the  mercy  of  their  mas- 
ters, but  certainly  not  such  as  to  render  their  situation  attractive,  nor 
greater  than  the  parishes  would  be  under  the  necessity  of  paying 
shortly  to  a  much  greater  number,  were  the  society  abolished.  While 
it  provides  a  remedy  for  the  existing  evils,  it  leaves  sufficient  induce- 
ment to  seek  out  other  channels  for  their  industry,  whenever  the  state 
of  society  shall  afford  them. 

We  are  far  from  contending  that  the  system  which  it  is  our  object  to 
recommend  is  one  of  unmingled  perfection,  productive  of  good  only, 
without  the  least  alloy  ;  for  such  is  not  the  condition  of  human  institu- 
tions, or  of  human  affairs.  The  possibility  of  perversion  and  abuse 
inseparably  adheres  to  every  conceivable  plan  for  ameliorating  the  con- 
dition of  mankind ;  and  he  who  refuses  his  approbation  to  every  thing 
short  of  perfection,  must  stand  still  in  hopeless  inactivity  and  despair. 
If  it  has  been  shown  that  the  plan  adopted  in  Leicestershire  provides 
the  only  remedy  for  an  evil  which  is  progressive  and  mtolerable,  that 
the  inconveniences  attending  it  bear  no  proportion  to  its  advantages, 
and  above  all,  that  the  principal  objections  urged  by  its  opponents  will 
apply  with  equal  force  to  every  other  mode  of  proceeding,  and  most 
of  all  to  that  which  they  recommend,  every  reasonable  demand  is  sat- 
isfied. Whether  this  has  been  accomplished  or  not,  must  be  left  to 
the  decision  of  an  enlightened  public ;  nor  let  it  be  deemed  presump- 
tuous to  say,  that  if  such  had  not  been  the  firm  persuasion  of  the  author, 
these  pages  had  not  appeared. 

If  he  should  be  thought  to  have  treated  Mr.  Cobbett  with  too  much 


ON  THE  FRAMEWORK  KNITTERS'  FUND.  153 

severity,  he  wishes  it  to  be  clearly  understood  that  his  censure  is  in  no 
degree  founded  on  the  professed  attachment  of  that  writer  to  the  cause 
of  reform.  Educated  in  the  principles  of  Mr.  Fox,  and  in  those  of  the 
earliest  and  best  days  of  Mr.  Pitt,  to  which  advancing  years  and  expe- 
rience have  increased  his  attachment,  it  is  impossible  he  should  enter- 
tain a  doubt  that  an  important  reform  in  our  representation  is  essentially 
connected  with  the  freedom,  the  glory,  and  the  happiness  of  the  British 
empire.  But  he  sees  in  Mr.  Cobbett  what  the  inteUigent  part  of  the 
public  will  at  once  discern,  a  design  to  push  the  industrious  classes  of 
the  community  to  despair,  and  to  aggravate  their  distresses,  in  order 
to  accelerate  the  catastrophe  he  contemplates ;  whether  it  involves  the 
preservation  of  the  consthution,  or  a  total  subversion  of  the  existing 
order  of  things,  must  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader.  On  the 
most  favourable  supposition,  "to  do  evil  that  good  may  come,"  to 
wish  to  see  the  industrious  part  of  the  population  couched  under  a 
supernumerary  weight,  that  they  may  become  instrumental  in  effecting 
some  great  and  undefined  revolution  in  public  affairs,  is  a  policy  which 
he  shall  ever  detest ;  nor  can  he  sirfficiently  deprecate  the  infusion 
of  political  venom  into  the  discussions  Avhich  the  present  Union  has 
produced. 

Let  those  who,  from  interested  motives,  or  from  motives  of  a  still 
worse  description,  concur  with  Mr.  Cobbett  in  vilifying  and  exploding 
the  present  plan,  propose  something  better,  unless  they  are  determined 
to  exemplify  that  malignant  potency  of  evil  by  which  "  one  sinner  de- 
stroys much  good."  It  is  surely  not  too  much  to  demand,  before  they 
proceed  to  dilapidate  the  only  asylum  offered  to  the  industrious  me- 
chanic, that  instead  of  exposing  him  houseless  and  shivering  to  the 
inclement  blast,  they  should  provide  some  better  accommodation  in  its 
room.  Other  expedients  have  been  devised  ;  a  large  subscription  was 
raised,  and  many  thousands  advanced  in  Nottinghamshire,  with  a  view 
to  employ  the  indigent  framework  knitters  in  public  works.  But  the 
scheme,  as  might  have  been  foreseen,  proved  abortive.  The  exertion 
could  not  be  continued,  a  succession  of  public  works  is  not  easily 
found  ;  and  after  alleviating  the  distress  of  a  single  winter,  every  thing 
returned  back  to  its  former  channel.  A  similar  plan,  the  writer  is 
informed,  is  in  contemplation  for  this  county,  and  as  far  as  it  is  adopted 
to  relieve  the  pressure  of  the  fund,  we  shall  rejoice  in  its  success ; 
but  if  it  is  intended  to  supersede  it,  or  to  withdraw  that  support  which 
the  difficulties  attending  an  infant  institution  may  demand,  it  will,  in 
my  humble  opinion,  be  unspeakably  injurious.  That  it  will  produce 
no  permanent  relief  to  the  existing  distress,  is  evident  from  the  exam- 
ple of  Nottingham  ;  and  however  praiseworthy  the  motives  of  its 
projectors,  it  is  but  the  part  of  candour  to  warn  the  workmen  and  the 
parishes,  that  if  their  dependence  upon  it  tempts  them  to  relax  their 
present  exertions,  they  will  discover,  when  it  is  too  late,  that  they  have 
lost  the  substance  by  grasping  at  a  shadow.  The  evil  required  to  be 
remedied  originates  in  permanent  causes,  such  as  will  mock  the  ope- 
ration of  all  temporary  expedients. 

With  respect  to  the  apprehension  which  some  have  professed  to  en- 
tertain, of  the  removal  of  the  manufacture  to  the  neighbouring  counties, 


154  REPLY  TO  COBBETT  AND  OTHERS. 

or  to  some  distant  part  of  the  kingdom,  little  requires  to  be  said.  Man 
is  the  same  in  every  comity,  and  the  energy  which  has  been  displayed 
by  the  Leicestershire  weavers  will,  there  is  no  doubt,  be  successfully 
imitated  elsewhere,  and  produce  the  same  results.  In  Nottingham- 
shire we  are  happy  to  find,  from  the  latest  intelligence,  that  the  most 
numerous  and  respectable  part  of  the  hosiers  have  already  acceded  to 
the  statement,  and  little  doubt  is  entertained  of  the  speedy  concurrence 
of  the  rest.  This  apprehension,  therefore,  if  there  ever  was  any 
ground  for  it,  the  event  has  dispelled.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  are  the 
operative  classes  in  this  department  to  starve  or  reduce  to  ruin  every 
other  description,  by  ineffectual  efforts  to  support  them,  in  the  contem- 
plation of  a  remote  contingency,  and  for  the  sake  of  securing  a  manu- 
facture, which,  upon  such  terms,  can  only  be  considered  as  an  epidemic 
disease,  an  imposthume,  a  source  of  misery  to  all  who  are  employed 
in  it,  and  of  embarrassment  and  distress  to  the  whole  community? 
The  competition  for  such  a  manufacture  is  a  competition  for  ruin. 

Before  I  conclude,  let  me  be  permitted  to  remind  the  reader  that 
there  is  such  a  sin  as  oppression  ;  that  it  consists  not  in  that  gross  vio- 
lation of  justice  which  is  cognizable  by  law,  and  against  which  the 
wisdom  of  all  civilized  nations  has  provided  ;  but  in  taking  such  an 
advantage  of  the  weakness  and  necessity  of  the  poor  as  converts  them 
into  mere  instruments  of  a  superior  power,  the  victims  of  selfish 
emolument,  with  no  other  consideration  than  how  far  their  physical 
exertions  may  be  rendered  subservient  to  the  gratification  of  an  un- 
feeling rapacity.  He  is  the  oppressor  who  is  not  restrained  by  the 
dictates  of  humanity  from  pushing,  to  its  utmost  extent:,  the  natural 
superiority  which  riches  everywhere  possess  over  poverty ;  and  the 
stratagems  by  which  this  may  be  effected  are  too  numerous  and  too 
subtle  to  fall  within  the  cognizance  of  any  earthly  tribunal.  When  the 
Scripture  denounces,  with  such  awful  severity,  the  doom  of  such  as 
"  withhold  their  hire  from  those  who  reaped  the  field,"*  we  must  not 
suppose  it  refers  so  much  to  a  violation  of  compact,  an  offence  which 
the  laws  of  no  civilized  country  would  permit,  as  to  the  inadequacy  of 
the  recompense  itself.  In  the  eye  of  Heaven,  wages  may  justly  be 
said  to  be  withheld  from  the  labourer,  when  they  are  totally  inadequate 
to  his  subsistence,  and  such  as  nothing  but  helpless  indigence  could 
induce  him  to  accept.  Instead  of  inquiring  how  much  of  this  species 
of  guilt  may  be  justly  chargeable  on  a  certain  class  of  manufacturers 
in  this  town  and  county,  which  would  only  suggest  matter  for  irritating 
reflection  and  fruitless  recriminations,  let  us  rather  rejoice  that  a  new 
scene  has  opened,  and  a  plan  been  adopted,  which,  we  trust,  will  cut 
off  the  opportunity  from  the  bad,  and  the  temptation  from  the  good, 
of  renewing  a  system  which  should  be  consigned  to  eternal  oblivion.f 
In  this  view,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  the  perpetuity  of 
the  Friendly  Society  is  intimately  connected  with  the  interest  of.  both 
worlds,  since  it  is  no  less  the  dictate  of  humanity  and  of  justice,  than 
of  sound  policy. 

*  James  y.  4. 

t  See  "  Letters  to  Buxton,"  published  by  Longman  and  Co.  which  breathe  throughout  the  elo- 
quence of  the  heart,  and  in  which  the  cause  of  humanity  is  pleaded,  and  the  sufierings  of  the  indus- 
trious classes  painted  with  a  pathos  it  is  impossible  to  resist. 


PROCEEDINGS. 


At  a  meeting  of  persons,  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Leicester  and  its  vicinity, 
held  the  17th  of  December,  1823, 

THOMAS  BABINGTON,  Esq.  in  the  Chair  ; 

Resolved, 

1.  That  the  individuals  composing  the  present  meeting  are  deeply  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  the  state  of  slavery  is  repugnant  to  justice,  humanity,  and 
sound  policy,  to  the  principles  of  the  British  constitution,  and  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Christian  religion  ;  and  that  they  cannot  consider  the  legal  perpetuation  of  slavery, 
in  principle,  more  defensive  than  the  slave-trade  itself. 

2.  That  they  call  to  mind,  with  sorrow  and  shame,  that  there  are  eight  hundred 
thousand  persons  in  a  state  of  personal  slavery  in  the  colonies  of  Great  Britain, 
deprived  of  those  civil  privileges  and  religious  advantages  to  which,  as  our  fellow- 
subjects,  they  are  entitled. 

3.  That  although  a  hope  was  long  indulged  that  the  aboUtion  of  the  slave-trade 
would  have  produced  most  beneficial  consequences  to  the  slave  population  in  the 
colonies,  no  effectual  steps  have  been  taken,  during  the  sixteen  years  which  have 
elapsed  since  that  event,  for  mitigating  in  any  material  degree  the  evils  of  negro 
bondage,  or  for  putting  an  end  to  a  system  which  outrages  every  feeling  of  humanity. 

4.  That  the  House  of  Commons  having,  during  the  last  session  of  parliament, 
unanimously  passed  the  following  resolutions,  viz. 

"  1.  That  it  is  expedient  to  adopt  effectual  and  decisive  measures  for  melio- 
rating the  condition  of  the  slave  population  in  his  majesty's  colonies  ; 

"  2.  That,  through  a  determined  and  persevering,  but  judicious  and  temperate 
enforcement  of  such  measures,  this  House  looks  forward  to  a  pro- 
gressive miprovement  in  the  character  of  the  slave  population  ;  such  as 
may  prepare  them  for  a  participation  in  those  civil  rights  and  privileges 
which  are  enjoyed  by  other  classes  of  his  majesty's  subjects  ; 

"  3.  That  this  House  is  anxious  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose  at 
the  earliest  period  that  may  be  compatible  with  the  well-being  of  the 
slaves,  the  safety  of  the  colonies,  and  with  a  fair  and  equitable  con- 
sideration of  the  state  of  property  therein  ;" 

the  individuals  present  feel  themselves  called  upon  to  promote  these  objects  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power  by  all  prudent  and  lawful  means. 

5.  That  for  this  purpose  a  society  be  now  formed  in  Leicester  and  its  vicinity,  as 
an  auxiliary  to  the  Society  for  the  Mitigation  and  Gradual  Abolition  of  Slavery 
throughout  the  British  Dominions. 

6.  That  subscriptions  be  received  by  the  treasurer,  at  the  bank  of  Messrs. 
Mansfield  &  Co.,  and  by  the  secretary  ;  and  that  all  persons  subscribing  annually 


158  LEICESTER  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY. 

to  the  society  be  members  of  it,  and  be  entitled  to  attend  and  vote  at  all  general 
meetings. 

7.  That  all  persons  subscribing  ten  shillings  or  upwards  yearly,  or  five  pounds 
at  one  time,  be  governors  of  the  society. 

8.  That  the  business  of  the  society  be  conducted  by  a  president,  a  treasurer,  a 
secretary,  and  a  committee,  consisting  of  not  less  than  fifteen  governors,  and  that 
five  constitute  a  quorum ;  and  that  the  president,  treasurer,  and  secretary  be, 
ex-officio,  members  of  the  committee. 

9.  That  the  committee  meet  once  every  two  months,  and  at  such  other  times  as 
they  may  fix,  and  call  general  meetings  of  the  subscribers  when  they  shall  judge 
it  requisite  ;  and  that  any  five  members  of  it  be  authorized  to  direct  the  secretary 
to  summon  a  special  meeting  of  the  committee,  giving  three  days'  notice  thereof. 


ADDRESS. 


That  slavery  is  the  most  deplorable  condition  to  which  human 
nature  can  be  reduced  is  too  evident  to  require  the  labour  of  proof.  By 
subjecting  one  human  creature  to  the  absolute  control  of  another,  it 
annihilates  the  most  essential  prerogative  of  a  reasonable  being,  M^hich 
consists  in  the  power  of  determining  his  own  actions  in  every  instance 
in  which  they  are  not  injurious  to  others.  The  right  improvement  of 
this  prerogative  is  the  source  of  all  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  which 
the  human  race  is  susceptible.  Slavery  introduces  the  most  horrible 
confusion,  since  it  degrades  human  beings  from  the  denomination  of 
persons  to  that  of  things ;  and  by  merging  the  interests  of  the  slave 
in  those  of  the  master,  he  becomes  a  mere  appendage  to  the  existence 
of  another,  instead  of  preserving  the  dignity  which  belongs  to  a  rea- 
sonable and  accountable  nature.  Knowledge  and  virtue  are  foreign 
to  his  state ;  ignorance  the  most  gross  and  dispositions  the  most  de- 
praved are  requisite  to  reduce  him  to  a  level  with  his  condition. 

But  degrading  as  slavery  is  in  its  mildest  form,  that  species  of  it 
which  prevails  in  our  West  India  colonies*  is  of  the  very  worst  de- 
scription, far  less  tolerable  than  that  which  subsisted  in  Greece  and 
Rome  during  the  reign  of  paganism.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
parallel  to  it  in  any  age  or  nation,  with  the  exception  of  those  unhappy 
persons  who  are  carried  captive  by  the  piratical  states  of  Barbary. 
Scourged,  branded,  and  sold  at  the  discretion  of  their  masters,  the 
slaves  in  our  West  India  islands  are  doomed  to  a  life  of  incessant  toil 
for  the  benefit  of  those  from  whom  they  receive  no  recompense  what- 
ever :  they  are  indebted  for  their  principal  subsistence  to  the  culti- 
vation of  small  portions  of  land  allotted  them  under  the  name  of 
provision  grounds  :  and  the  only  time  ordinarily  allowed  for  that  pur- 
pose is  the  day  which  the  laws  of  all  Christian  states  have  devoted  to 
rest.  On  that  day,  instead  of  being  assembled  to  listen  to  the  oracles 
of  God,  and  to  imbibe  the  consolations  of  piety,  they  are  necessitated 
to  work  for  their  living,  and  to  dispose  of  the  produce  of  their  labour 
at  the  public  market ;  the  natural  consequence  is,  that  the  far  greater 

*  The  following  authorized  summary  of  the  number  of  slaves  in  the  British  colonies,  in  June, 
1830,  may  be  interesting  to  some  readers. 

Antigua,  29,839.  Bahama  Isles,  10,841.  Barbadoes,  81,902.  Berbice,  21,319.  Bermuda,  4,608. 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  35,509.  Demerara  and  Essequibo,  69,467.  Dominica,  15,392.  Grenada, 
34,342.  Jamaica,  331,119.  Mauritius,  76,774.  Montserrat,  fi,262.  Nevis,  9,259.  St.  Christopher's, 
19,310.  St.  Lucia,  13,661.  St.  Vincent,  23,589.  Tobago,  12,723.  Trinidad,  24,452.  Virgin  Islands, 
5,436. 

Total  number  of  slaves  In  the  British  colonies,  825,804. 

Free  blacks  in  the  British  colonies,  about  51,000. 

The  slave  population  ol  the  United  States  of  America,  in  1S23,  amounted  to  1,83S,1.'J5.— Ed. 


160  ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY. 

part  of  them  are  as  ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of  Christianity  as 
though  they  had  remained  in  the  land  of  their  forefathers. 

They  are  driven  to  the  field  by  the  cart-whip.*     They  are  followed 

*  Since  this  address  was  written,  the  persevering  efforts  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  other 
associations  formed  for  the  attainment  of  the  same  admirable  object,  have  led  to  some  diminution  of 
the  evils  under  which  the  slaves  in  the  West  Indian  isles  have  so  long  groaned. 

In  the  year  1823,  the  House  of  Commons  passed  the  following  resolutions  : — 

"  1.  That  it  is  ex  pedient  to  adopt  effectual  and  decisive  measures  for  meliorating  the  condition  of 
the  slave  population  in  his  majesty's  colonies. 

"  2.  That,  through  a  delernjined  and  persevering,  but  at  tlie  same  time  judicious  and  temperate 
enforcement  of  such  measures,  this  House  looks  forward  to  a  progressive  improvement  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  slave  population,  such  as  may  prepare  them  for  a  participation  in  those  civil  rights  and 
privileges  which  are  enjoyed  by  other  classes  of  his  majesty's  subjects. 

"  3.  That  this  House  is  anxious  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose  at  the  earliest  period  that 
shall  be  compatible  with  the  icell-heing  of  the  slaves  themselves,  with  the  safety  of  the  colonies, 
and  ivilli  a  fair  avd  equitable  consideration  of.  the  interests  of  private  property." 

In  consequence  of  these  resolutions,  several  of  the  colonial  legislatures  have  made  enactments 
enforcing  a  more  humane  treatment  of  the  slave  population.  Thus,  in  Dominica,  St.  Christopher's, 
Nevis,  and  Demerara,  the  "cart-whip"  is  absolutely  prohibited  as  an  instrument  of  punishment, 
and  in  some  of  them  "as  an  emblem  of  authority."  In  Jamaica,  and  a  few  other  islands,  it  is  en- 
acted, "  that  no  slave  shall  receive  more  than  ten  lashes,  except  in  presence  of  owner  or  overseer, 
&c.  ;  nor,  in  such  presence,  more  than  thirty-nine  in  any  one  day,  nor  until  recovered  frorh  former 
punishment,  under  penalty  of  20^"  It  is  further  enacted,  that  "  no  collar  or  chains  shall  be  put  oa 
slaves,  but  by  order  of  a  magistrate,  on  penalty  of  50Z.  Justices  of  peace  to  cause  such  collar,  <fcc. 
to  be  removed,  under  a  penalty  of  lOtI/." 

Such,  we  are  told,  has  been  the  law  ever  since  the  year  1826.  But  how  is  it  administered?  The 
following  narrative,  published  in  the  Kingston  "  Watchman"  of  the  lOth  of  July,  1830,  may  suffice 
as  an  answer  to  the  question.  It  exhibits  a  case  of  outrageous  cruelty,  combined  with  a  gross  vio- 
lation of  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath. 

"  Yesterday  morning,  William  Henry  Hall,  Esq.,  a  magistrate  of  this  city,  preferred  a  complaint 
to  the  sitting  magistrates,  J.  Smith  and  J.  Nether.sole,  Esqrs.,  against  Mr.  W.  J.  Harvey,  a  white 
person,  employed  on  the  wharf  of  Messrs.  John  Wilson  and  Co.,  for  cruelty  towards  two  negro 
men  slaves,  belonging  to  the  drogging  (coasting)  schooner  Judith.  Farmer,  lying  along-side  that 
wharf 

"  Mr.  Hall  stated,  that  about  six  o'cloclt  on  Monday  aflernoon,  he  received  information  that  two 
negroes  had  been  flogged  in  the  workhouse  early  that  morning,  by  order  of  Mr.  Harvey,  their  owner, 
and  on  their  return  to  the  vessel,  that  they  were  chained  down  to  the  deck  by  the  wrist,  where  they 
remained  the  whole  day,  with  the  lacerated  parts  exposed  to  the  heat  of  the  sun.  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  the  wharf  with  two  constables,  and  on  going  on  board  found  (he  negroes  still  chained  on  the 
deck.  They  had  on  only  their  shirts.  He  ordered  a  pair  of  pantaloons  to  be  given  to  each  of  them, 
and  desired  the  constables  to  release  them  from  the  chain,  and  to  take  them  to  the  cage;  at  the 
same  time  warning  Mr.  Harvey,  the  owner  of  the  slaves,  and  Captain  Bacon,  the  conmiander  of 
the  schooner,  to  appear  on  the  following  morning  before  the  sittiiig  magistrates. 

"  Captain  Bacon,  the  connnander  of  the  vessel,  stated,  that  on  Sunday  morning  the  two  men 
present,  Bush  and  IluU,  left  the  vessel  vi'ith  two  other  negroes,  named  John  Uter  and  William :  that 
they  returned  on  board  early  on  Monday  morning,  and  resumed  their  work.  Shortly  after,  Mr. 
Harvey  came  on  board,  and  on  demanding  their  reasons  for  not  loading  the  vessel  on  Sunday,  they 
answered  that  they  thought  it  very  hard  they  were  not  to  be  allowed  even  one  Sunday ;  they  were 
not  insolent.  Mr.  Harvey  then  seized  them,  and  placed  them  in  a  boat,  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
them  a  flogging  in  the  workhouse,  to  which  place  he  took  them.  When  he  returned  on  board  with 
the  negroes  (about  seven  o'clock  the  same  morning),  he  ordered  witness  to  chain  them,  which  he  did. 
Mr.  Harvey  came  on  board  several  times  during  the  day,  and  saw  where  the  negroes  were  lying, 
and  the  naked  state  in  which  they  were,  but  gave  no  orders  that  they  should  be  removed  out  of  the 
heat  of  the  sun,  or  that  pantaloons  be  put  on  them.  Bush  and  Bull  remained  in  that  exposed  situa- 
tion from  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  six  in  the  evening,  when  the  magistrate  and  con- 
stables relea.sed  them.  He  had  no  fault  to  find  with  the  negroes  ;  they  certainly  were  not  the  very 
best  of  negroes  ;  Bush  was  a  little  trickified,  but  generally  he  had  no  fault  to  find  with  them. 
They  were  flogged  and  chained  for  no  other  offence  than  fbr  not  loading  the  vessel  on  a  Sunday. 

"  [During  the  examination,  Mr.  Harvey  whispered  something  twice  or  thrice  to  Captain  Bacon, 
who  answered,  'I  mu.st  speak  the  truth,  Mr.  Harvey;'  fordoing  which  he  has  since  been  dis- 
charged.] 

"  There  were  several  other  witnesses  present,  ready  to  corroborate  the  statement  of  Mr.  Hall  and 
the  captain,  as  well  as  to  prove  Mr.  Harvey's  general  cruel  treatment  of  the.  negroes  under  his 
contiK)I,but  the  magistrates  refused  to  examine  thera. 

"  Mr.  Smith  (one  of  the  magistrates)  said,  he  conceived  that  Mr.  Harvey  acted  very  properly  in 
correcting  his  negroes  as  he  did.  He  was  of  opinion  that  it  was  highly  necessary  that  they  should 
have  been  on  board  on  Sunday ;  and  with  regard  to  their  being  exposed  to  the  sun  all  day,  he  knew 
that  they  preferred  being  in  the  sim  than  to  be  in  the  shade.  In  fact,  he  knnv  it,  and  therefore  dis- 
missed the  complaint." 

The  proceeding  in  this  case  was  vindicated  by  other  newspapers,  and  particularly  by  the  "  Cou- 
rant."    In  reply  to  them  the  editor  of  the  "  Watchman"  puts  the  following  questions  : — 

"  1st.  By  what  law  was  Mr.  Harvey  authorized  to  punish,  by  the  infliction  of  thirty-nine  lashes 
each,  two  men,  merely  because  they  would  not  work  on  the  Sabbath-day  ? 

"  '2d.  Was  it  necessarj'  to  ensure  obedience,  after  they  had  been  flogged,  to  handcuff  them  to  a 
chain  cable,  on  the  deck  of  a  vessel,  from  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  half-past  six  o'clock  in 
the  evening  ? 


ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY.  JQI 

by  a  driver,  with  this  dreadful  instrument  constantly  in  his  hand,  with 
which  he  is  empowered  to  inflict,  at  his  own  discretion,  a  certain  num- 
ber of  lashes  on  their  backs,  with  no  exception  whatever  in  favour  of 
the  softer  sex.  During  the  four  or  five  months  of  their  harvest  they 
are  compelled  to  protract  their  labour  through  half  the  night,  or  through 
the  whole  of  each  alternate  night.  They  are  every  moment  liable  to 
be  removed,  at  the  will  of  their  masters,  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
island,  or  to  be  transported  into  other  islands.  The  ties  of  kindred 
are  violently  torn  asunder,  and  the  mother  and  children  often  assigned 
to  different  purchasers,  and  separated  to  distant  parts.  The  ordinance 
of  marriage  is  scarcely  known  among  them ;  while  the  most  unre- 
strained licentiousness  and  profligacy  of  manners,  as  well  in  their 
intercourse  with  each  other  as  with  the  whites,  is  indulged  and  encou- 
raged. 

The  practice  of  emancipation,  which  has  long  prevailed  to  a  great 
extent,  and  been  followed  by  the  happiest  effects,  in  the  old  Spanish 
colonies,  is  discountenanced  by  the  laws  of  our  colonies,  and  loaded 
with  such  heavy  fines  in  some  of  them  as  almost  to  amount  to  a  pro- 
hibition. The  design  of  such  regulations  is  unquestionably  to  confer 
perpetuity  on  the  present  system,  and  extinguish  in  the  breast  of  the 
negroes  the  faintest  hope  of  the  enjoyment  of  freedom. 

Nothing  was  wanting  to  complete  the  misery  of  such  a  state,  except 
to  attach  absolute  impunity  to  the  atrocities  which  the  unlimited  sub- 
jection of  the  weak  to  the  strong  is  sure  to  produce  ;  and  this  is  amply 
provided  for  by  that  regulation  universally  adopted  in  our  colonies, 
which  excludes  the  testimony  of  a  negro  against  a  white  inhabitant. 
In  consequence  of  this  law,  the  vilest  miscreant  may  inflict  whatever 
cruelties  he  pleases  on  the  wretched  blacks,  provided  he  takes  care 
that  no  white  person  be  present.  There  are  laws,  it  is  true,  which  consti- 
tute the  murder  of  a  negro  a  capital  offence,  and  which  limit  the  mea- 
sure of  his  punishment ;  but,  as  if  for  the  very  purpose  of  rendering 
them  nugatory  and  ridiculous,  conviction  is  made  to  depend  on  a  cir- 
cumstance attending  the  perpetration  of  crimes,  which  it  is  most  easy 
to  exclude.  Thus,  in  opposition  to  the  genius  of  all  enlightened  legis- 
lation, the  greatest  facilities  are  presented  to  oppression — the  greatest 
impediments  thrown  in  the  way  of  detection — and,  in  all  that  relates 
to  the  treatment  of  slaves,  the  voice  of  truth  is  silenced,  evidence  sup- 

"3d.  Was  it,  or  was  it  not,  cruelty  to  confine  them,  in  the  manner  described,  during  the  whole 
day,  in  a  hot  sun,  in  a  state  of  partial  nudity,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives  ? 

"4th.  What  would  have  been  the  consequence,  had  it  corne  on  suddenly  to  blow  (as  it  is  said 
to  have  done  on  the  day  previous)  half  a  galeof  wind  ?  And  whether  such  an  event  might  not  have 
been  attended  with  the  loss  of  those  unlbrlunate  individuals'  lives  ? 

"  If  Mr.  Harvey,  or  the  magistrates,  will  reply  satisfactorily  to  these  questions,  we  will  then 
acquit  the  former  of  the  charge  of  cruelty,  and  trie  latter  of  having  outraged  common  sense,  by 
declaring  that  he  'acted  very  properly  in  correcting  his  negroes  as  he  did  I' 

"  Mr.  Harvey  went  round,  on  the  Saturday,  to  the  ditTerent  wharfs  from  which  his  vessel,  the  Judith 
Farmer^  had  to  take  goods,  and  requested  those  goods  to  be  letl  on  the  bridge  of  the  wharf,  so  as  to 
enable  him  to  employ  his  negroes  on  Sunday  in  taking  them  off,  and  therewith  loading  his  vessel  I 
In  order  to  avoid  what  they  very  properly  considered  a  hardship,  namely,  loading  the  vessel  on  Sun- 
day, the  negroes  went  away,  and  did  not  return  until  six  o'clock  the  following  morning.  For  this 
heinous  crime  two  of  these  men  received  thirty-nine  lashes  each,  and  were  handcuffed  to  the  chain 
cable  of  a  ves.sel  in  Kingston  harbour,  until  liberated  by  a  magistrate  ;  and  yet  this  is  the  kind  of 
conduct  that  Mr.  James  Smith  and  Mr.  John  Neihersole  attempt  to  justify,  and  to  examine  and  de- 
ckle upon  which  they,  as  msgistrafes,  moet  and  award  justice  by  dismissing  the  oomplatnt."— Ei>. 

Vol.  II.— L 


162  ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY. 

pressed,  the  claims  of  justice  studiously  defeated,  and  the  redress  of 
the  most  atrocious  injuries  rendered  next  to  impossible. 

There  is  another  particular  in  the  state  of  the  laws  respecting 
negroes  too  remarkable  to  be  passed  over  in  silence.  It  is  the  obvious 
dictate  of  justice,  and  the  practice  of  all  civilized  states,  that,  till  guilt 
is  proved,  innocence  shall  be  presumed  ;  and  that  the  onus  probandi, 
the  obligation  of  adducing  evidence,  shall  rest  with  the  accuser  in  the 
first  instance.  In  the  West  India  islands  the  reverse  of  tliis  is  estab- 
lished, and  every  negro,  or  man  of  colour,  though  free,  is  presumed  to 
be  a  slave,  and  liable  to  be  treated  as  such,  unless  he  can  furnish  docu- 
mentary evidence  of  his  freedom.  It  is  enacted  that  the  presumption 
shall  always  be  taken  against  him :  so  that  if  he  loses  his  certificate 
of  freedom,  or  it  is  stolen  from  him,  it  is  at  the  option  of  any  person 
to  claim  him,  and  replunge  him  into  the  horrors  of  slavery.  By  this 
means  many  are  daily  deprived  of  their  freedom ;  and  the  danger  of 
incurring  that  calamity  is  constantly  suspended  over  the  heads  of  the 
innocent. 

It  is  no  small  aggravation  of  the  cruelty  of  this  system  that  its 
unhappy  victims  have  not  been  exposed  to  it  as  the  punishment  of 
crime,  but  by  the  violence  of  ruffians,  who,  having  traversed  the  ocean 
in  quest  of  human  prey,  forcibly  tore  them  from  their  native  shores 
and  the  embraces  of  their  dearest  relatives,  in  order  to  expose  them  to 
sale  in  a  distant  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  forms  of  judicial  inquiry, 
the  examination  of  witnesses,  the  proof  of  guilt,  and  the  sentence  of  a 
judge  were  not  the  precursors  of  this  most  dire  calamhy;  it  was  the 
assault  of  brutal  violence  on  helpless  weakness  and  unsuspecting 
innocence^ — it  was  the  grasp  of  the  marauder  and  the  assassin  hurry- 
ing away  his  victims  amid  shrieks  of  horror  and  the  piercing  accents 
of  despair  which  prepared  these  scenes  of  wo.  These  and  the 
descendants  of  these  are  the  persons  who  compose  the  black  popula- 
tion of  our  islands.  Their  number  is  computed  at  present  at  800,000  ; 
and  if  we  direct  our  view  to  that  portion  of  the  British  dominions,  we 
behold  the  shocking  spectacle  of  nearly  a  million  of  our  fellow-subjects, 
with  no  other  imputation  than  that  of  a  darker  skin,  doomed  to  a  con- 
dition which,  were  it  assigned  as  the  punishment  of  the  greatest  guilt, 
Avould  be  accused  of  immoderate  severity.  We  behold  these  children 
of  nature,  for  the  purpose  chiefly  of  supplying  us  with  the  ingredient 
which  sweetens  our  repasts,  compelled  by  men  who  call  themselves 
Christians  to  exhaust  to  its  dregs  a  more  bitter  cup  than  is  usually 
allotted  to  the  greatest  adepts  in  crime. 

It  is  confidently  asserted  by  advocates  of  slavery  that  the  situation 
of  the  negroes  in  our  islands  is  preferable  to  that  of  the  labouring 
classes  in  England.  But  the  falsehood  of  this  assertion  is  sufficiently 
proved  by  the  numerous  elopements  which  take  place  there :  on  re- 
ferring to  a  very  recent  Jamaica  paper,  we  observe  a  list  of  more  than 
a  hundred  runaway  slaves ;  so  that  admitting  this  to  be  a  fair  speci- 
men of  what  usually  occurs,  the  number  of  slaves  who  attempt  to 
escape  from  their  masters  in  one  island  only  amounts  annually  to  five 
or  six  thousand.     It  appears  that  the  far  greater  part  were  branded, 


ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY.  i63 

many  of  them  in  different  parts  of  the  body,  and  not  a  few  are  desig- 
nated by  their  wounds  and  sores,  the  effects  of  immoderate  punishment. 
A  moment's  reflection  must  convince  us  that  the  condition  must  be 
intolerable  from  which  such  numbers  daily  attempt  their  escape  at  the 
hazard  of  tortures  and  of  death. 

We  are  in  possession  of  a  religion  the  communication  of  which 
would  afford  some  compensation  for  the  injuries  we  have  inflicted,  and 
let  in  a  ray  of  hope  on  the  benighted  mind.  To  say  that  no  effectual 
provision  has  been  made  for  this  purpose  is  to  assert  the  smallest  part 
of  the  truth.  The  religious  instruction  of  the  negroes  has  not  only 
been  neglected,  but  such  regulations  introduced  as  renders  it  nearly 
impracticable.  The  attempts  of  this  sort  which  have  been  made  have 
not  resulted  from  any  legislative  enactment,  but  merely  from  the  zeal 
of  private  individuals  exposed  for  the  most  part  to  the  utmost  opposi- 
tion and  obloquy ;  nor  will  it  admit  of  a  doubt  that  but  for  the  season- 
able interference  of  the  government  at  home  all  such  proceedings  would 
long  since  have  been  suppressed.  The  colonial  legislatures  have 
displayed  nearly  as  much  aversion  to  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
slaves  as  to  the  extension  of  their  civil  immunities  ;  and,  judging  from 
their  conduct,  we  should  be  tempted  to  infer  they  were  no  less  careful 
to  exclude  them  from  the  hope  of  heaven  than  from  happiness  on  earth. 

It  would  be  natural  to  suppose  such  a  system  could  have  few  charms 
for  the  spectator,  that  the  presence  of  such  a  mass  of  degradation  and 
misery  would  be  a  source  of  continual  annoyance,  and  that  no  exertion 
would  be  spared  by  those  who  have  it  most  in  their  power  to  diminish  its 
pressure  and  lighten  its  horrors.  On  the  contrary,  the  West  India 
planters  view  it  with  the  utmost  complacency ;  in  their  eyes  it  seems 
to  be  a  most  finished  and  exquisite  specimen  of  social  order,  a  master- 
piece of  policy,  the  most  precious  legacy  bequeathed  them  by  their 
ancestors,  which  they  are  bound  to  maintain  inviolate  in  every  part,  to 
defend  at  the  greatest  risk,  and  to  transmit  unimpaired  to  future  gene- 
rations. They  anticipate  with  the  utmost  confidence  the  perpetual 
duration  of  the  system,  and  reprobate  every  measure  which  has  the 
remotest  tendency  to  endanger  its  existence  as  the  offspring  of  inde- 
scribable folly  and  wickedness.  To  such  a  degree  are  their  moral 
perceptions  vitiated,  that  they  really  believe  they  have  a  prescriptive 
right  to  be  guilty  of  injustice,  to  trample  on  the  image  of  their  Maker, 
to  erase  his  superscription,  and  to  treat  that  portion  of  their  species 
which  fortune  has  subjected  to  their  power  as  mere  beasts  of  burden, 
divested  of  the  essential  characteristics  of  humanity.  In  this  instance 
impious  speculations  have  been  resorted  to  in  palliation  of  practical 
enormities ;  nor  have  there  been  v/anting  those  who  avow  their  per- 
suasion that  the  negro  is  more  nearly  allied  to  the  orang-outang  than 
to  the  human  kind. 

Hence  it  appears  that  a  state  of  slavery  is  in  its  operation  as  mis- 
chievous to  the  master  as  to  the  slave.  If  its  effects  on  the  latter  are 
more  visible  in  his  corporeal  structure,  in  his  debased  physiognomy, 
his  dejected  countenance,  his  lacerated  skin,  and  not  unfrequently  in 
his  "  wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrifying  sores,"  its  effects  on  the  mind 

L2 


164  ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY. 

of  the  former  are  not  less  perceivable  in  the  most  inveterate  prejudice, 
a  pride  which  spurns  the  restraints  of  justice,  a  violence  which  is  deaf 
to  the  dictates  of  compassion — in  a  word,  in  a  capricious  and  uncon- 
trollable self-will,  which  lays  waste  all  the  finer  sensibilities  of  the 
soul,  and  renders  its  possessor  too  often  a  rebel  to  his  God,  a  torment 
to  himself,  and  a  terror  to  his  fellow-creatures. 

Sixteen  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade,*  and  during  this  period  few  or  none  of  those  improvements  have 
taken  place  in  the  treatment  of  slaves  which  were  expected  to  result 
from  that  measure.  At  that  time  it  was  generally  contended  that  as 
the  planters  Avould  be  necessitated  thenceforth  to  keep  up  the  number 
of  their  slaves  without  the  aid  of  fresh  importations,  this  itself  would 
draw  after  it  such  an  amelioration  in  the  management  of  them  as  Avould 
ensure  the  happiest  results  without  legislative  interference.  The  in- 
terest of  the  proprietors,  it  was  supposed,  would  so  obviously  coincide 
with  the  dictates  of  humanity  as  to  give  these  the  force  of  law.  It  is 
too  manifest,  however,  from  the  event,  that  in  forming  this  conclusion 
we  did  not  take  sufficiently  into  account  the  short-sightedness  of  rapa- 
city, the  force  of  habit,  the  contagion  of  example,  and  the  incurable 
propensity  of  jiuman  nature  to  abuse  absolute  power,  in  whatever  hands 
it  is  placed.  The  enormities  which  formerly  characterized  the  slave 
system  have  suffered  little  or  no  abatement ;  all  its  most  odious  pecu- 
liarities are  retained,  while  by  the  just  retribution  of  Providence  the 
planters  are  reduced  to  the  utmost  embarrassment  and  distress. 

After  witnessing  such  an  obstinate  adherence  to  a  system  equally 
injurious  to  the  negroes  and  to  themselves — after  every  suggestion  of 
improvement  has  been  indignantly  rejected,  and  not  a  single  efibrt 
made  in  behalf  of  the  slave  population,  if  we  except  a  few  verbal 
enactments  passed  with  no  other  view,  it  is  evident  from  the  event, 
than  to  elude  inquiry  and  silence  complaint — it  would  be  more  than 
vain,  it  would  be  foolish  and  preposterous,  to  look  for  any  substantial 
redress  from  colonial  legislators.  Theij  are  the  aggressors,  they  are 
the  authors  of  the  evils  we  complain  of;  and  how  can  it  be  expected 
they  should  legislate  against  themselves  1  To  leave  the  slaves  in 
their  hands,  what  is  it  less  than  to  recommend  the  lamb  to  the  protec- 
tion of  the  wolf? 

Slavery,  considered  as  a  perpetual  state,  is  as  incapable  of  vindica- 
tion as  the  trade  in  slaves :  they  are  integral  parts  of  the  same  system, 
and  in  point  of  moral  estimate  must  stand  or  fall  together.  If  it  be 
unjust  to  sell  men  into  slavery  who  are  guilty  of  no  crime,  it  must  be 
equally  so  to  retain  them  in  that  state ;  the  last  act  of  injustice  is  but 
the  sequel  and  completion  of  the  first.  If  the  natives  of  Africa  were 
originally  despoiled  of  their  freedom  by  rapine  and  violence,  no  man  is 
entitled  to  avail  himself  of  the  condition  to  which  they  are  reduced,  by 
compelling  them  to  labour  for  his  benefit ;  nor  is  it  less  evident  that 
they  could  not  possibly  transmit  the  forfeiture  to  their  children  of  those 
rights  which  they  never  forfeited  for  themselves.     Thus  it  appears 

.„*  The  resolution  of  the  Heuse  of  Commons  fbr  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  passed  in  June, 
180«.-Ei>. 


ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY.  155 

that  the  claims  of  the  planters  to  hold  their  negroes  m  perpetual 
bondage  is  vitiated  in  its  origin ;  and  having  commenced  in  an  act  of 
injustice,  can  never  acquire  the  sanction  of  right- 
But  here  we  are  most  anxious  to  guard  against  the  misrepresenta- 
tion of  our  sentiments.  Convinced  as  we  are  that  negro  slavery  is 
most  iniquitous  in  its  origin,  most  mischievous  in  its  eftects,  and  dia- 
metrically opposite  to  the  genius  of  Christianity  and  of  the  British 
constitution,  we  are  yet  far  from  proposing  a  sudden  revolution.  Uni- 
versal experience  shows,  that  in  the  body  politic,  no  less  than  in  the 
natural,  inveterate  diseases  admit  only  of  a  slow  and  gradual  cure ; 
and  we  should  deprecate  an  immediate  emancipation  almost  as  much 
as  the  planters  themselves,  from  a  full  conviction  that  the  debasing 
operation  of  slavery  long  continued  disqualifies  its  subjects  for  per- 
forming the  functions  and  enjoying  the  immunities  of  a  free  citizen. 

Our  object  is,  in  the  first  place,  to  produce  such  an  amelioration  of 
their  treatment  as  shall  soften  the  rigour  of  their  bondage ;  and  in  the 
next,  that  provision  for  their  moral  and  religious  instruction,  which  by 
developing  their  faculties  and  improving  their  character  may  ultimately 
qualify  them  for  the  possession  of  the  freedom  of  which  they  have 
been  cruelly  deprived.  With  this  view  we  wish  to  see  the  competency 
of  negro  evidence  established  as  the  only  efficient  check  to  wanton 
barbarity ;  the  employment  of  rewards  as  well  as  punishments ;  the 
instruction  of  the  slaves  in  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  the 
uninterrupted  enjoyment  of  the  Sabbath ;  the  institution  of  marriage 
and  the  inviolability  of  its  rights  firmly  established ;  the  exclusion  of 
the  cart-whip  from  the  field  of  labour ;  together  with  the  repeal  of  that 
abominable  law  which  renders  them  liable  to  be  sold  in  execution  for 
the  payment  of  their  master's  debts.  If  in  addition  to  these  most 
wholesome  regulations  facilities  were  alTorded  for  the  purchase  of  their 
freedom  similar  to  those  which  have  been  adopted  in  the  old  Spanish 
colonies  with  the  happiest  effect,  freedoms  would  be  gradually  ob- 
tained in  such  proportion  and  in  such  numbers  only  as  would  perfectly 
consist  with  the  security  and  tranquillity  of  the  colonies.  Thus  a  race 
of  freemen  fitted  by  their  constitution  and  their  habits  for  the  employ- 
ments of  a  tropical  climate,  united  with  us  by  civil  and  religious  ties, 
would  rise  up  in  the  room  of  the  present  wretched  victims  of  oppres- 
sion,— a  race  that,  having  a  country  to  preserve  and  rights  to  defend, 
would  be  a  source  of  national  strength  instead  of  inspiring  terror  and 
distrust. 

The  superiority  of  free  labour,  in  point  of  emolument,  to  the  labour 
of  slaves,  having  been  demonstrated  by  such  an  ample  induction  of 
facts  that  it  may  be  safely  classed  with  the  most  established  maxims 
of  political  economy,  the  practice  of  gradual  emancipation  would  be  of 
essential  benefit  to  the  planters,  and  greatly  augment  the  value  of  our 
West  India  possessions.  Indeed,  there  cannot  be  a  more  cogent  proof 
of  the  folly  of  pertinaciously  adhering  to  the  present  system,  than  the 
acknowledged  inability  to  sustain  a  competition  with  the  growers  of 
sugar  in  the  East  Indies.  In  order  to  raise  the  price  of  East  India 
produce  so  as  to  enable  the  planter  in  the  west  to  keep  the  market,  an 


166  ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY. 

extra  duty  is  imposed  to  a  large  amount,  and  the  people  of  England 
are  obliged  to  pay  upwards  of  two  millions  a  year  more  for  that  article 
than  would  be  necessary  if  a  fair  competition  were  allowed ;  in  other 
words,  the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain  are  assessed  to  the  amount  of 
more  than  two  millions  annually,  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  maintain 
the  slave  system  in  the  West  Indies  ;  and  in  opposition  to  the  dictates 
of  humanity,  the  precepts  of  religion,  and  the  principles  of  political 
economy  and  impartial  justice,  we  contribute  more  to  perpetuate  our 
own  disgrace,  than  it  would  be  deemed  prudent  to  bestow  in  the  pur- 
chase of  the  greatest  blessing.  All  our  plans  of  domestic  improvement, 
joined  to  all  the  efforts  which  we  make  for  the  diffusion  of  religion  and 
virtue  in  foreign  nations,  our  schools,  our  Bible  societies,  and  our 
missions,  justly  considered  as  the  pecuhar  glory  of  the  age,  cost  us  a 
mere  scantling  compared  to  what  is  annually  devoted  to  that  very  pious 
and  benevolent  object  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies ; 
we  throw  mites  into  the  treasury  of  the  sanctuary,  and  heap  ingots  on 
the  altar  of  Moloch. 

And  why,  it  is  natural  to  ask,  why  is  it  necessary  to  load  the  import- 
ation of  sugar  from  the  East  Indies  with  such  heavy  duties,  in  order 
to  enable  the  growers  of  the  same  article  in  an  opposite  quarter  of  the 
globe,  at  not  one-third  the  distance,  to  sustain  a  competition  ?  Purely 
because  the  East  India  sugar  is  produced  by  the  labour  of  freemen, 
the  West  India  by  the  labour  of  slaves.  The  industry  of  the  former 
is  animated  by  hope,  that  of  the  latter  depressed  by  despair ;  one  is 
sustained  by  the  energies  of  nature,  the  other  extorted  by  the  mechanical 
operation  of  the  lash ;  the  former  labour  for  themselves,  the  latter  for 
their  masters ;  and  such  is  the  distinction  between  these  two  species 
of  industry,  that  it  more  than  annihilates  the  local  difference  between 
three  or  four,  and  twelve  thousand  miles.  Surely  the  good  sense  of 
the  nation  will  at  last  awake  to  a  perception  of  this  flagrant  enormity, 
and  express  its  impatience  at  the  ignominy  and  injustice  of  such  an 
assessment,  in  that  firm  and  constitutional  tone  which  the  legislature 
will  not  despise. 

Let  us  not  be  discouraged  if  in  this  great  enterprise  our  attempts 
are  not  immediately  crowned  with  success.  The  slave-trade,  be  it 
remembered,  was  long  upheld  by  a  combination  of  private  interests,  in 
opposition  to  the  remonstrances  of  reason,  humanity,  and  religion  ;  but 
it  fell  at  last.  Such  unquestionably  will  be  the  fate  of  slavery.  It 
may,  like  its  twin-brother,  be  supported  for  a  time  by  that  grand 
obstruction  to  all  enlightened  legislation,  the  opposition  of  interested 
individuals,  who  may  obscure  truth  by  sophistry,  and  intimidate  justice 
by  a  formidable  array  of  influence ;  but  it  is  one  of  the  felicities  of  a 
free  country  that  nothing  can  be  permanent  which  will  not  sustain  the 
ordeal  of  inquiry  and  the  shock  of  discussion. 

We  indulge  a  hope,  though  the  measures  of  administration  during  the 
last  session  of  parliament  fell  far  short  of  our  wishes,  that  it  was  from  a 
want  of  resolution  more  than  of  good  intention  ;  that  they  have  formed  on 
the  whole  a  correct  view  of  the  subject,  and  that  they  are  not  unwilling  to 
jreceive  that  support  from  the  expression  of  the  public  mind  which  a  com- 


ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY.  157 

bination  of  private  interests  renders  necessary.  Be  this  as  it  may,  as  we 
are  always  answerable  for  the  evils  which  it  is  in  our  power  to  prevent, 
and  some  of  the  greatest  disorders  in  society  have  been  corrected  by 
the  interference  of  the  public  through  its  constitutional  organs,  we 
cannot  continue  passive  spectators  of  a  system  which  inflicts  interminable 
degradation  and  misery  on  eight  hundred  thousand  of  our  fellow- 
subjects,  without  deeply  partaking  of  its  guilt. 

The  scene  of  their  suffering  is  distant  indeed,  but  not  so  remote  as 
to  exempt  them  from  the  operation  of  our  laws  :  they  form  an  integral 
part  of  the  British  dominions,  and  wo  to  that  nation  which  extends  its 
power  to  those  from  whom  it  withholds  its  justice !  That  distance 
which  did  not  secure  them  from  spoliation  and  captivity  while  in  Africa 
should  not  be  allowed  for  a  moment  to  intercept  our  attention  to  their 
welfare  and  commiseration  of  tljeir  sufferings,  now  that  they  are  trans- 
ported to  the  West  Indies.  Through  the  aid  of  the  public  voice,  the 
government  of  the  day  carried  triumphantly  in  1807  the  great  question 
of  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade.  Let  us  endeavour  by  a  simulta- 
neous movement  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  present  administration 
if,  as  we  hope,  they  are  Avell  disposed,  to  stimulate  them  if  they  are 
sluggish,  and  to  propel  them  at  all  events  in  the  right  direction,  by 
such  a  Arm  and  unanimous  display  of  the  public  sentiment  and  feeling 
on  this  great  occasion  as  no  free  government  will  think  it  proper  to 
neglect ;  that  we  may,  though  late,  make  some  reparation  for  the 
accumulated  injuries  of  ages  that  are  past,  and  signalize  our  connexion 
with  Africa  by  other  characters  than  those  of  rapine,  violence,  and 
blood. 

We  cannot  suppose  for  a  moment  that  government  will  suffer  the 
extraordinary  conduct  recently  displayed  by  the  local  authorhies  of 
Jamaica  to  have  any  influence  in  preventing  its  adoption  of  such 
measures  for  the  amelioration  of  the  present  system  as  justice  and 
humanity  may  dictate.  To  be  bearded  and  insulted  by  persons  in 
their  situation  would  be  mortifying  enough,  if  the  ridicule  attached  to 
their  proceedings  did  not  interfere  with  more  serious  emotions.  To 
say  that  government  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  West  India  islands 
would  be  scarcely  correct,  for  we  have  much  to  fear ;  but  it  is  not  from 
their  strength,  but  their  weakness,  which  is  such,  that  were  we  to 
withdraw  our  support  they  would  fall  like  ripe  fruit  into  the  lap  of  the 
first  invader.  They  are  so  much  accustomed,  it  seems,  to  proceed  by 
the  method  of  intimidation,  as  to  forget  their  absolute  dependence  on 
Great  Britain  for  protection,  as  well  from  domestic  as  from  foreign 
dangers  ;  nor  could  we  wish  them  a  more  cruel  revenge  than  to  leave 
them  to  their  own  resources.  If,  by  adopting  such  regulations  as  the 
humanity  and  wisdom  of  parliament  shall  prescribe,  they  can  make  it 
clearly  appear  that  their  pecuniary  interests  are  affected  (which  in  our 
opinion  will  be  impossible)  let  them  by  all  means  receive  a  suitable 
compensation  ;  but  let  us  be  permitted  at  the  same  lime  to  express  our 
hope  that  government  will  not  be  diverted  from  its  course  by  the  growl- 
ing of  a  tiger  which  refuses  to  quit  its  prey. 

The  interference,  then,  of  an  enlightened  public  to  circulate  informa- 


168  ADDRESS  ON  WEST  INDIA  SLAVERY. 

tion,  to  strengthen  the  hands  and  second  the  movements  of  govern- 
ment in  this  most  just  enterprise,  is  imperiously  demanded.  We 
cannot  sit  still,  year  after  year,  silent  spectators  of  the  most  enormous 
oppression  exercised  within  the  limits  of  the  British  dominions,  without 
partaking  of  its  guilt.  We  cannot  remain  silent  and  inactive,  without 
forgetting  who  we  are,  and  what  we  have  done  ;  that  we  are  the  coun- 
try which,  after  a  tedious  struggle  with  a  host  of  prejudices  arrayed 
in  support  of  opulent  oppression,  have  overthrown  the  slave-trade, 
torn  it  up  by  the  roots,  and  branded  in  the  eyes  of  all  nations  the  sale 
of  human  flesh,  as  the  most  atrocious  of  social  crimes.  We  must 
forget  that  we  are  the  countrymen  of  Granville  Sharp,  who,  by  incredi- 
ble exertions,  succeeded  at  length  in  purifying  the  British  soil  from 
this  its  foulest  pollution,  and  rendered  it  for  ever  impossible  for  a  slave 
to  breathe  its  air.  We  must  sever  ourselves  from  all  alliance  of  spirit 
with  a  Wilberforce  and  a  Clarkson,  who  looked  forward  to  the  final 
emancipation  of  the  negro  race  as  the  consummation  of  their  labours, 
and  were  sustained  in  their  arduous  contest  by  the  joy  which  that 
prospect  inspired.  We  must  lose  sight  of  still  more  awful  considera- 
tions, and  forget  our  great  Original,  "  who  hath  formed  of  one  blood 
all  nations  of  men,  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth." 


FRAGMENTS. 

DEFENCE    OF   VILLAGE    PREACHING. 

HINTS   ON  TOLERATION, 

THE    RIGHT    OF    WORSHIP,    &c. 


[Written  in  1801,  1802,  and  1811.] 


NOTE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 


The  disquisition  of  which  the  interesting  Fragments  now  presented  to  the 
public  are  alone  preserved  was  commenced  in  1801.  About  that  time  the  late 
Bishop  Horsley  advanced  the  opinion  in  various  charges  and  sermons  (extracts 
from  one  of  which  are  subjoined  in  a  note)*  that  the  dissenters  and  Methodists,  in 
their  attempts  to  introduce  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  villages  where  the  evan- 
gelical doctrines  were  not  taught  in  the  established  church,  were  actuated  by  what 
were  then  termed  "Jacobinical"  motives,  and  by  a  desire  to  overthrow  the  episco- 
palian form  of  church  government.  This  opinion,  repeatedly  announced  in  the 
oracular  tone  too  often  assumed  by  that  learned  prelate,  obtained  an  extraordinary 

*  Extracts  from  Bishop  Horsley's  Charge,  published  in  1800. 

After  observing  that  the  laity  of  England  have  as  little  relish  for  socinianism  as  for  atheism,  and 
that  they  think  much  alike  of  him  who  openly  disowns  the  Son  and  of  him  who  denies  the  Father, 
Insomuch  that  the  advocates  of  this  blasphemy  have  preached  themselves  out  of  all  credit  with  the 
people,  he  proceeds  as  follows  : — 

"  Still  the  operations  of  the  enemy  are  going  on — still  going  on  by  stratagem.  The  stratagem  still 
a  pretence  of  reformation.  But  the  reformation  the  very  reverse  of  what  was  before  attempted. 
Instead  of  divestmg  religion  of  its  mysteries,  and  reducing  it  to  a  mere  philosophy  in  speculation  and 
a  mere  morality  in  practice,  the  plan  is  now  to  affect  a  great  zeal  for  orthodoxy — to  make  great 
pretensions  to  an  extraordinary  measure  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence— to  alienate  the  minds  of  the 
people  from  the  established  clergy  by  representing  them  as  sordid  worldlings,  without  any  concern 
about  the  souls  of  men,  indifferent  to  the  religion  which  they  ought  to  teach,  and  to  which  the  laity 
are  attached,  and  destitute  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  many  parts  of  the  kingdom  conventicles  have 
been  opened  in  great  numbers,  and  congregations  formed  of  one  knows  not  what  denomination.  The 
pastor  is  often,  in  appearance  at  least,  an  illiterate  peasant  or  mechanic.  The  congregation  is  visited 
occasionally  by  preachers  from  a  distance.  Sunday-schools  are  opened  in  connexion  with  these 
conventicles.  There  is  much  reason  to  suspect  that  the  expenses  of  these  schools  and  conventicles 
are  defrayed  by  as.sociations  formed  in  different  places  ;  for  the  preachers  and  schoolmasters  are 
observed  to  engage  in  expenses  for  the  support  and  advancement  of  their  institutions  to  which,  if 
we  may  judge  from  appearances,  their  own  means  must  be  altogether  inadequate.  The  poor  are  even 
bribed,  by  small  pecuniary  gifts  from  time  to  time,  to  send  their  children  to  these  schools  of  they 
know  not  what,  rather  than  to  those  connected  with  the  established  church,  in  which  they  would  be 
bred  in  the  principles  of  true  religion  and  loyalty.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  these  new  congrega- 
tions of  nondescripts  have  been  mostly  formed  since  the  jacobins  have  been  laid  under  the  restraints 
of  those  two  most  salutary  statutes  commonly  known  by  the  names  of  the  Sedition  and  Treason 
bills, — a  circumstance  which  gives  much  ground  for  suspicion  that  sedition  and  atheism  are  the  real 
objects  of  these  institutions  rather  than  religion.  Indeed,  in  some  places  this  is  known  to  be  the 
case.  In  one  topic  the  teachers  of  all  these  congregations  agree, — abuse  of  the  established  clergy, 
as  negligent  of  their  flocks,  cold  in  their  preaching,  and  destitute  of  the  Spirit.  In  this  they  are 
joined  by  persons  of  a  very  different  cast,  whom  a  candour  of  which  they  on  their  part  set  but  a  poor 
example  is  unwilling  to  suspect  of  any  ill  design,  though  it  is  diflicult  to  acquit  them  of  the  imputa- 
tion of  an  indiscretion  in  their  zeal,  which  in  its  consequences  may  be  productive  of  mischief  very 
remote,  I  believe,  froi.i  their  intention.  It  is  a  dreadful  aggravation  of  the  dangers  of  the  present 
crisis  in  this  country,  that  persons  of  real  piety  should,  without  knowing  it,  be  lending  their  aid  to 
the  common  enemy,  and  making  themselves  in  effect  accomplices  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  Lord 
and  against  his  Christ.  The  jacobins  of  this  country,  I  very  much  fear,  are  at  this  moment  making 
a  tool  of  Methodism,  just  as  the  illumin^es  of  Bavaria  made  a  tool  of  freemasonry  ;  while  the  real 
Methodist,  like  the  real  fi-eemason.  is  kept  in  utter  ignoranceof  the  wicked  enterprise  the  counterfeit 
has  in  hand."— P.  lS-20. 

In  page  25,  <fec.  the  bishop  corrects  a  misrepresentation  of  a  sjieech  delivered  by  him  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  gives  the  Ibllowing  as  a  faithful  statement  of  it.  "I  said,"  says  he,  "  that  schools  of 
Jacobinical  religion  and  Jacobinical  politics,  that  is  to  say,  schools  of  atheism  and  disloyalty,  abound 
in  this  country — schools  in  the  shape  and  di>guise  of  charity — schools  and  Sunday-schools  in  ivhich 
the  minds  of  the  children  of  the  very  lowest  orders  are  enlightened,  iha'  is  to  say,  taught  to  despise 
religion,  and  the  laws,  and  all  subordination.  This  I  know  to  be  the  fact.  Bui  the  proper  antidote 
Ibr  the  poison  of  the  Jacobinical  schools  will  be  schools  for  children  of  the  same  class,  under  the 
management  of  the  parochial  clergy :— Siuiday-schools  therefore  under  your  own  inspection  I  would 
advise  you  to  encourage." — P.  20. 


172  NOTE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 

currency ;  and  there  was  every  reason  to  fear  that  some  strong  legislative  measures 
for  the  prevention  of  these  encroachments  (as  they  were  regarded)  upon  the  func- 
tions of  a  parish  minister  would  be  adopted.  The  necessity  of  such  measures  was 
urged  again  and  again  with  the  utmost  violence  and  intolerance  in  several  of  the 
daily  and  other  periodical  publications  ;  so  that  considerable  apprehensions  were 
naturally  entertained  that  these  exertions  of  Christian  benevolence  would  be  alto- 
gether checked  or  greatly  restricted. 

In  such  a  state  of  things  Mr.  Hall  commenced  this  essay,  but  the  public  ebulli- 
tion subsiding,  he  relinquished  his  design  of  publication,  and  indeed  destroyed  a 
portion  of  what  he  had  written. 

In  the  years  1810  and  1811  the  friends  of  village  preaching  by  dissenters,  and  of 
Sunday-schools  under  their  superintendence,  were  again  alarmed  by  a  fresh  attempt 
to  restrain  their  operations,  though  not  undertaken  in  a  hostile  spirit,  in  an  act 
brought  into  parliament  by  Lord  Sidmoulh.  His  lordship  proposed  some  new 
restrictions  upon  persons  who  wished  to  qualify  as  dissenting  teachers  and  others, 
either  by  separate  license  or  by  some  other  method  thought  to  be  appropriate,  on 
itinerant  preaching.  He  also  proposed  to  deprive  lay-preachers  of  certain  exemp- 
tions which  had  hitherto  been  granted.  Against  these  measures  petitions  were 
sent  to  parliament  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom ;  and  the  bill,  being  opposed  by 
Lords  Grey,  Holland,  Erskine,  Liverpool,  Moira,  StanJiope,  by  Dr.  Manners  Sutton, 
then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  by  Lord  Chancellor  Ehlon,  was  lost  May  21st, 
1811,  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Erskine,  which  was  agreed  to  without  a  division. 
The  minds  of  those  classes  of  the  pubUc  that  were  interested  in  the  diffusion  of 
evangelical  knowledge  among  the  poor  were,  however,  agitated  by  this  question 
for  several  months.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  Mr.  Hall  determined  to  revise  and 
complete  what  he  had  formerly  begun ;  but  the  failure  of  Lord  Sidmouth's  plan 
induced  him  again  to  lay  aside  his  pen,  and  again  to  destroy  great  part  of  the 
manuscript.  The  portions  which  escaped  destruction  have  been  found  since  Mr. 
Hall's  death.  They  want  the  advantage  of  entire  continuity,  as  well  as  of  the 
author's  finishing  touch ;  and  being  composed  at  distant  periods,  and  in  part  evi- 
dently rewritten  to  suit  the  modification  of  the  general  purpose  occasioned  by  the 
later  attempts  at  restriction,  they  exhibit  a  slight  repetition  of  sentiment.  It  has, 
however,  been  thought  right  to  preserve  the  whole  of  them,  as  they  unfold  and  place 
in  different  lights  some  valuable  principles  of  general  application. 

For  a  full  account  of  the  proceedings  on  Lord  Sidmouth's  bill,  the  reader  may 
advantageously  consult  "A  Sketch  of  the  History  and  Proceedings  of  the  Deputies 
appointed  to  protect  the  Civil  Rights  of  the  Protestant  Dissenters." 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 


*  *  *  Where  they  beheld  the  papal  power  overturned,  they  were 
ready  to  imagine  the  season  was  approaching,  so  clearly  foretold,  when 
true  rehgion  should  emerge  from  the  clouds  of  superstition  which 
environed  her,  and  enlighten  the  world.  Who  Avill  say  that  these 
hopes  indicated  depravity  in  the  minds  of  those  who  cherished  them 
too  fondly  ?  It  was  surely  not  very  criminal  to  rejoice  at  the  prospect 
of  the  extinction  of  evil,  and  the  universal  prevalence  of  justice,  peace, 
and  happiness ;  or  to  mistake  "  the  times  and  seasons  which  the 
Father  has  put  into  his  own  power."  Good  men  were,  of  all  others, 
least  likely  to  suspect  that  their  hopes  would  be  blasted  by  a  wicked- 
ness of  which  the  world  aflbrded  no  example.  Whatever  of  this 
delusion,  however,  might  have  prevailed  heretofore,  the  virtuous  part 
of  the  public  are  completely  recovered  from  it ;  nor  has  it  liad  the 
smallest  influence  in  stimulating  the  exertions  which  it  is  the  purpose 
of  this  publication  to  defend. 

The  only  shadow  of  argument  on  which  Bishop  Horsley  founds  his 
accusation  that  village  preaching  has  a  political  object  is,  that  it  has 
been  chiefly  prevalent  since  the  Pitt  and  Grenville  bills,  as  they  are 
styled,  were  passed  ;  which  put  a  stop  to  political  meetings.  Hence 
he  infers  that  it  is  only  a  new  channel  into  which  the  old  stream  is 
directed.  Here,  however,  he  is  entirely  mistaken.  The  true  source 
of  this  increased  activity  is  to  be  found  in  the  missions,  the  first  of  which 
was  established  some  years  before  the  Grenville  bills  were  passed. 
The  attention  of  the  religious  public  was  strongly  excited  on  that 
occasion  to  the  indispensable  necessity  of  "  preaching  the  gospel  to 
every  creature,"  and  the  result  was,  a  resolution  to  exert  more  zealous 
and  extensive  efforts  to  diflfuse  the  knowledge  of  saving  truth  at  home 
than  had  before  been  employed.  Agreeable  to  this  it  will  be  found, 
on  inquiry,  that  those  who  most  distinguished  themselves  in  political 
debates  have  had  the  least  share  (if  they  have  had  any)  in  promoting 
these  measures ;  and  that  the  invariable  effect  of  engaging  in  these 
plans  has  been  to  diminish  the  attention  bestowed  on  political  objects. 
This  indeed  could  not  fail  to  be  the  consequence :  for  as  the  mind  is 
too  limited  to  be  very  deeply  impressed  with  more  than  one  object  at 
a  time,  a  solicitude  to  promote  the  interests  of  piety  must  insensibly 
diminish  the  ardour  for  every  thing  that  is  not  necessarily  involved  in 
it ;  not  to  say,  that  the  spirit  of  devotion  which  such  designs  imply 
and  promote  is  peculiarly  incompatible  with  the  violence  and  acrimony 
of  political  passions.    He  who  is  truly  intent  on  promoting  the  eternal 


174  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

happiness  of  mankind  must  look  on  futurity  with  so  steady  an  eye, 
that  he  is  in  more  danger  of  falUng  into  indifference  to  the  spectacle 
that  is  passing  before  him  than  of  suffering  himself  to  be  too  much 
inflamed  by  it.  He  is  under  more  temptation  to  desert  his  proper  rank 
in  society,  to  undervalue  the  importance  of  worldly  activity,  and  to  let 
opportunities  of  exertion  slide  through  his  hands,  than  to  indulge  tur- 
bulent and  ambitious  views. 

Hence  we  find  in  the  first  ages  of  the  church,  heathens  made  frequent 
complaints  of  the  inactivity  of  Christians,  but  never  accused  them  of 
turbulence ;  and  that  while  many  fled  into  deserts,  from  austerity  and 
devotion,  not  one,  during  the  prevalence  of  paganism,  endured  the 
chastisement  of  the  laws  for  sedition  or  treason.  The  pious  of  every 
age  have  been  among  the  quiet  of  the  land. 

If  our  legislators  are  aware  (as  I  hope  they  are)  of  the  inconceiv- 
able benefits  which  are  derived,  in  a  political  view,  from  the  diffusion 
of  pure  and  undefiled  religion,  no  fascination  of  great  talents  or  of 
high  rank,  no  fear  of  misrepresentation  or  calumny,  will  tempt  them 
to  be  guilty  of  a  legislative  suicide,  by  exerting  their  authority  to 
suppress  it ;  since  nothing  can  ever  give  equal  efficacy  to  the  laws  or 
stability  to  the  government.  The  law  of  itself  can  only  address  fears  ; 
religion  speaks  to  the  conscience,  and  commands  it  to  respect  that 
justice  on  which  the  law  is  founded.  Human  law  can  only  arm  itself 
with  penalties  which  may  be  averted,  despised,  or  endured ;  religion 
presents,  in  the  displeasure  of  our  Maker,  an  evil  that  can  have  no 
bounds.  Human  laws  can  only  take  cognizance  of  disorders  in  their 
last  stage,  proposing  only  the  punishment  of  the  delinquent,  without 
attempting  to  prevent  the  crime  :  religion  establishes  a  tribunal  in  our 
own  breast,  where  that  which  is  concealed  from  every  other  eye  is 
arraigned,  and  the  very  embryo  of  crime  detected  and  destroyed. 

If  we  examine  the  sources  of  crimes,  we  shall  perceive  the  chief 
temptation  to  violate  the  principles  of  justice  and  humanity  arises  from 
a  discontent  with  the  allotments  of  Providence  :  men  are  apt  to  attach 
an  importance  to  what  they  see  another  possesses.  But  what  can  be 
so  sovereign  a  cure  for  this  discontent  as  religion,  which  teaches  that 
all  things  are  under  the  disposal  of  infinite  Wisdom  ;  that  life  is  but  a 
passage  to  an  eternal  condition  of  being ;  that  every  thing  the  world 
admires  is  passing  away,  and  that  he  only  who  "  doeth  the  will  of  God 
abideth  for  ever  ?" 

Religion  must  infallibly  promote  obedience  to  the  laws,  by  subduing 
those  violent  passions  which  give  birth  to  crimes.  As  our  hopes  and 
fears  must  all  turn  on  the  present  scene,  or  on  futurity,  it  is  plain  that 
a  principle  which  throws  an  infinite  weight  into  the  latter  scale  must 
greatly  diminish  the  influence  of  the  former.  On  this  account,  real 
piety  must  ever  be  an  enemy  to  intemperate  enjoyments  and  to  ex- 
travagant hopes.  In  addition  to  this,  Christianity  enforces  obedience 
to  civil  rulers  with  the  utmost  clearness  and  under  the  most  solemn 
sanction,  adopting  the  duties  of  a  citizen  into  the  family  of  religion,  and 
commanding  its  disciples  to  revere  civil  government  as  the  ordinance 
of  God ;  and  to  be  "  subject,  not  chiefly  for  wrath,  but  for  conscience' 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING.  175 

sake."  Who  are  so  likely  to  be  loyal  subjects  as  those  who  consider 
lawful  princes,  in  the  exercise  of  their  functions,  as  the  representatives 
of  the  Supreme  Ruler,  and  judges  as  the  dispensers  of  the  portion 
confided  to  them  of  eternal  justice  ?  The  public  may  be  assured,  that 
as  nothing  is  more  remote  from  the  views  of  those  who  are  most 
active  in  promoting  village  preaching  than  an  intention  to  promote 
political  discontent,  so  nothing  is  more  removed  from  the  practice  of 
the  preachers.  That  there  may  be  an  imprudent  or  an  unprincipled 
individual  who  profanes  the  function  of  a  preacher  by  introducing 
political  remarks  (a  practice  too  common  with  those  who  are  loudest 
in  the  condemnation  of  dissenters)  is  possible,  though  it  has  never 
been  my  lot  to  hear  of  any  among  our  village  preachers  ;  but  that  such 
instances  are  extremely  rare,  and  when  they  occur  never  fail  to  be 
discountenanced  in  the  strongest  manner,  both  by  dissenters  and 
Methodists,  may  be  affirmed  with  the  utmost  confidence.  There  is  no 
maxim  more  constantly  inculcated  by  all  who  have  any  influence  in 
these  measures,  than  that  of  scrupulously  abstaining  from  every,  even 
the  remotest,  allusion  to  politics.  They  have  preached  liberty  indeed, 
but  it  is  that  liberty  which  Jesus  Christ  proclaimed  at  Nazareth,  that 
holy  and  divine  liberty  with  which  the  Son  makes  his  followers  free ; 
not  that  liberty  whose  thrilling  accents  awake  nations  to  arms,  but 
that  which  is  enjoyed  in  the  highest  perfection  in  the  quiet  of  the 
sanctuary,  where  all  is  still ;  as  in  the  temple  of  Solomon  the  sound 
of  tlie  lifted  hammer  was  not  heard.  They  propose  a  revolution,  but 
it  is  that  by  which  men  are  translated  from  the  kingdom  of  Satan  to 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  Christ.  They  propose  great  innovations, 
but  such  as  consist  in  exhorting  men  to  newness  of  heart. 

His  lordship  expresses  his  approbation  of  Sunday-schools,  provided 
they  are  placed  under  the  inspection  and  control  of  the  clergy.  If  the 
clergy  will  take  the  trouble  of  forming  and  inspecting  Sunday-schools, 
they  may  confer  a  great  benefit  on  the  public,  and  gain  much  honour 
to  themselves  :  whether  the  nation  will  tamely  submit  to  have  the 
business  of  education  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  any  one  set  of  men 
remains  to  be  tried.  The  attempt  to  support  an  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment, by  invading  the  freedom  of  education,  resembles  more  the  policy 
of  a  Julian  than  the  gentleness  of  Christ.  To  invade  the  freedom  of 
charity  is  a  stretch  of  tyranny  still  more  odious.  To  control  the 
movements  of  benevolence,  and  construe  the  impulse  of  compassion 
into  a  crime,  is  such  an  outrage  as  can  only  be  paralleled  in  the  dark- 
est ages,  and  in  the  most  barbarous  minds.  Of  what  crimes  have  the 
dissenters  been  convicted  we  will  boldly  ask ;  of  such  infamy  that 
even  the  exercise  of  benevolence  in  them  must  wear  the  aspect  of  guilt ; 
and  that  they  must  be  degraded,  not  only  beneath  the  rights  of  citizens, 
but  the  possibilities  of  virtue  ?  What  have  these  helots  of  England 
done  to  deserve  this  more  than  Spartan  cruelty  ?  In  the  name  of  eternal 
justice,  I  invoke  the  injured  majesty  of  our  common  nature  to  repel 
an  attack  so  injurious,  founded  on  aspersions  so  foul  and  detestable. 

It  is  asserted  that  these  revolutionary  designs  are  carried  on  under 
pretences  of  superior  piety.      It  is  matter  of  accusation   that   the 


176  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

dissenters  make  these  pretences.  If  the  dissenters,  however,  profess 
to  have  more  piety  than  the  members  of  the  established  church,  it  will 
be  shrewdly  suspected  to  arise  from  a  very  plain  reason,  namely,  that 
they  have  more.  Hypocrisy  is  the  vice  of  individuals,  not  of  numerous 
bodies  of  men,  who  can  have  no  motive  sufficiently  extensive  in  its 
operation  to  engage  them  to  submit  to  its  restraints.  The  same  con- 
clusion results  from  another  consideration.  Nothing  but  a  conscientious 
preference  can,  generally  speaking,  incline  a  man  to  a  mode  of  religious 
profession  which  in  the  mildest  times  is  unpopular,  and  at  some  seasons 
not  exempt  from  danger  and  disgrace.  Without  contending  for  any 
superiority  in  the  principles  of  dissent,  the  very  circumstance  of 
becoming  a  dissenter,  or  of  continuing  such,  at  some  expense  of  worldly 
reputation  and  advantage,  indicates  a  mind  over  which  religious  con- 
siderations have  great  influence.  They  who  never  scarcely  think  of 
religion  at  all,  or  who  abandon  themselves  to  the  tide  of  opinion  and 
fashion,  are  safely  conducted  into  the  haven  of  the  established  churcli. 
To  be  content  with  merely  being  tolerated,  instead  of  sharing  the 
honours  and  emoluments  of  an  opulent  establishment,  to  have  all  the 
avenues  which  lead  to  greatness  shut  against  them,  is  a  sacrifice  which 
nothing  but  conscientious  piety,  however  mistaken,  can  prompt  them 
to  make.  In  addition  to  which,  it  may  be  remarked,  that  a  religious 
minority,  from  a  conviction  that  their  conduct  will  be  exposed  to  a 
severe  scrutiny,  and  that  nothing  can  sustain  them  against  the  contempt 
of  the  world  but  superior  correctness  of  morals,  have  a  motive  for 
cherishing  the  spirit  of  their  institution  which  others  want. 

On  these  accounts  it  will  not,  we  hope,  be  deemed  presumptuous 
if  we  take  it  for  granted  that  the  dissenters,  and  especially  that  class 
of  them  who  have  signalized  their  zeal  for  the  religious  instruction 
of  the  poor,  have  really  more  piety  than  falls  to  the  share  of  the  great 
body  of  the  people  of  England.  But  how  is  it  possible  for  pious  men 
to  enter  into  a  conspiracy  to  overturn  the  constitution  of  their  country, 
and  to  overwhelm  every  thing  in  anarchy  ?  For  this  purpose  they 
must  unite  themselves  intimately  with  the  infidel  faction :  they  must 
make  common  cause  with  those  detestable  monsters  whose  pestilential 
breath  has  blasted,  in  other  countries,  every  thing  cheering  to  the  eye 
or  refreshing  to  the  heart.  They  must  forget  the  infinite  contrariety 
of  principle  which  divides  them  ;  they  must  forget  the  daggers  of  these 
assassins,  which,  after  destroying  their  enemies,  they  never  fail  to  turn 
acrainst  their  associates,  impelled  by  an  insatiable  eagerness  for  de- 
struction. They  must  put  their  fortune,  their  character,  their  life,  in 
the  hands  of  men  with  whom  it  would  not  be  safe  to  trust  themselves 
in  a  room.  There  is  nothing  more  opposite  than  the  spirit  of  piety 
and  the  spii"it  of  faction.  There  enters  into  the  composition  of  faction 
a  meddlesome  and  mischievous  activity,  blended  with  a  callousness 
of  heart.  Devotion  softens  the  temper ;  faction  knows  no  delicacy  in 
the  choice  of  its  society.  It  wants  no  other  qualities  in  its  associates 
than  turbulence  and  discontent,  a  conscience  which  no  crimes  can 
startle,  and  an  impudence  which  no  detection  can  confront.  Devotion, 
alarmed  at  wickedness,  and  disgusted  with  folly,  is  apt  to  carry  the 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING.  177 

principle  of  selection  too  far.  Faction  delights  in  scenes  of  tumult 
and  noise  ;  devotion  in  solitude  and  retirement.  Faction  busies  itself 
with  forming  external  movements,  and  values  itself  only  on  the  change 
it  produces  in  the  situation  of  external  objects  ;  the  treasures  and 
conquests  of  religion  are  internal.  Faction  draws  its  nourishment 
from  an  overweening  conceit  of  superior  wisdom,  accompanied  with 
a  proportionable  contempt  of  the  understanding  and  virtue  of  other 
men ;  the  solid  foundation  of  piety  is  laid  in  humility,  or  a  deep 
conviction  of  our  sinfulness  and  fallibility.  I  will  not  say  that  men 
of  real  piety  have  never  been  betrayed  into  factious  enterprises,  or 
have  not  on  some  occasions  pushed  their  opposition  to  government 
too  far ;  but  it  may  be  safely  affirmed,  that  whenever  they  have  done 
so  it  must  have  arisen  from  an  extraordinary  concurrence  of  circum- 
stances ;  generally  from  the  oppression  which  makes  a  wise  man  mad  : 
that  it  is  most  foreign  to  their  general  character,  and  that  nothing  is  a 
more  effectual  antidote  to  political  turbulence  than  the  prevalence  of 
piety. 

Before  we  proceed  further,  I  must  be  permitted  to  lament  that  pro- 
pensity to  credit  and  propagate  the  most  hideous  calumnies  which 
seems  to  have  arisen  to  an  unprecedented  height  in  this  age.  It  may 
ansAver  a  temporary  purpose,  but  it  is  well  if  it  does  not  recoil  on 
those  who  employ  it.  It  resembles  the  policy  of  insurrections  and 
riots,  which,  though  they  may  occasionally  punish  or  crush  an  ob- 
noxious sect,  no  wise  government  will  adopt,  for  fear  of  a  reaction. 
To  fill  the  minds  of  the  public  with  hatred,  jealousies,  and  suspicions 
is  to  poison  the  fountains  of  public  security.  When  this  spirit  is  once 
awakened  among  a  people,  the  character  and  conduct  of  its  rulers 
seldom  fail,  in  the  long  run,  to  be  injured  by  it.  Under  disasters 
which  the  utmost  wisdom  cannot  prevent,  under  burdens  which  the 
strictest  economy  may  impose,  government  presents  a  plain,  a  pal- 
pable, and  permanent  pretext  of  discontent  and  suspicion.  Misery 
finds  a  sort  of  relief  in  attributing  its  sufferings  to  the  conduct  of 
others,  and  while  it  soothes  its  anguish  by  resentment  and  clamour,  it 
fastens  on  the  object  that  first  presents  itself.  This  object  will  natu- 
rally be  the  rulers  of  the  nation.  Nor  is  there  any  thing  with  respect 
to  which  men  are  more  liable  to  be  mistaken  than  the  share  which 
the  imprudence  or  misconduct  of  civil  government  has  in  the  produc- 
tion of  public  calamities.  So  various,  so  subtle,  so  complicated  in 
their  operation  are  the  causes  which  conduct  to  prosperity  or  decline 
in  the  affairs  of  nations,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  the  utmost  delicacy  to 
determine  what  share  is  to  be  assigned  to  human  agency,  and  what  to 
contingencies  and  events.  This  obscurity  furnishes  infinite  scope  for 
the  exercise  of  candour  in  the  well  disposed,  and  for  the  indulgence  of 
suspicion  and  discontent  in  the  factious.  In  scenes  so  complicated, 
and  when  the  steps  are  so  numerous  and  so  untraceable  between  the 
first  movement  and  the  last,  it  is  equally  diflicult  to  form  a  right  esti- 
mate of  events  when  we  are  very  remote  or  when  we  are  very  near 
them.  If  we  attempt  to  survey  a  remote  era,  we  are  lost  in  naked 
generalities  ;  when  we  turn  our  eyes  on  the  scene  before  us,  our  atten- 

VoL.  II.— M 


178  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

tion  is  apt  to  be  limited  to  detached  parts ;  we  are  apt  to  confound 
proximate  with  remote  causes,  to  mistake  casual  coincidence  for 
natural  connexion,  and  to  give  a  disproportionate  importance  to  what- 
ever we  immediately  feel.  Let  them  who  have  any  doubt  of  the 
dreadful  effects  of  calumny  look  at  what  took  place  in  France,  where 
they  will  find  it  was  the  principal  engine  employed  by  the  Brissotines 
to  overturn  the  monarchy,  and  afterward  by  Robespierre  to  deluge  that 
devoted  country  with  blood.  By  inspiring  everlasting  jealousies  and 
unbounded  fears,  he  contrived  to  extirpate  every  remain  of  tenderness 
and  pity,  and  to  preserve  the  minds  of  the  people  in  constant  agita- 
tion, like  the  sea  in  a  storm.  It  was  this  that  whetted  the  daggers  of 
assassins.  It  was  the  withering  blast  of  this  spirit  that  destroyed 
every  thing  amiable  and  noble  in  that  unhappy  kingdom,  resigned  to 
the  desolating  sway  of  selfishness  and  revenge.  Nothing  can  be  more 
fatal  to  public  repose ;  nothing  can  tend  more  immediately  to  quicken 
the  seeds  of  convulsion.  That  this  malignant  leaven  should  be  infused 
into  the  public  mind  by  any  hands  must  be  matter  of  deep  regret ; 
that  it  should  be  mingled  and  prepared  by  those  hands  from  which  the 
world  is  wont  to  look  for  benedictions  and  blessings  seems  awful  and 
portentous. 

Let  not  this,  however,  be  understood  to  intimate  that  there  is  any 
room  to  apprehend  the  dissenters  may  be  provoked  to  verify  the  sus- 
picions and  calumnies  to  which  they  are  incessantly  exposed.  The 
writer  would  be  understood  to  speak  merely  of  the  tendency  of  such 
infusions  on  the  nation  at  large ;  not  at  all  of  their  influence  on  the 
dissenters  or  Methodists.  Their  loyalty  is  of  too  fine  a  texture  to  be 
affected  by  the  efiiux  or  influx  of  public  opinion.  While  they  enjoyed 
the  countenance  of  the  public  their  loyalty  was  sustained  by  a  higher 
motive  than  popularity,  nor  will  any  discouragement  tempt  them  to 
forfeit  it.  In  the  mean  time  they  place  a  firm  reliance,  first  on  the 
protection  of  Heaven,  the  judge  of  their  innocence,  next  on  the  impar- 
tial justice  and  parental  kindness  of  their  gracious  sovereign,  to  pre- 
vent them  from  being  overwhelmed  and  swallowed  up  by  the  reproaches 
of  their  enemies. 

Enough  has  been  said  on  this  head,  I  trust,  to  satisfy  every  unpre- 
judiced person  that  nothing  is  more  remote  from  the  design  of  these 
institutions  than  the  promotion  of  seditious  or  revolutionary  plans. 

It  is  time  to  proceed  to  a  distinct  charge,  which  is  that  of  hostility 
to  the  Church  of  England.  It  is  confidently  asserted  by  the  prelate 
to  whom  we  have  so  often  had  occasion  to  allude,  that  it  is  the  con- 
stant practice  of  itinerant  preachers  to  calumniate  the  clergy,  by  repre- 
senting them  as  a  set  of  hirelings,  destitute  of  the  spirit  of  piety,  and 
utterly  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  their  flocks  ;  by  which  artifices 
they  alienate  the  affections  of  the  people  from  the  established  pastors, 
and  prepare  them  for  becoming  dissenters ;  or  what,  in  the  dialect  of 
the  learned  prelate,  is  the  same  thing,  schismatics. 

Although  it  is  extremely  disagreeable  to  be  obliged  to  contradict  a 
positive  assertion  in  a  manner  equally  positive,  yet  truth  compels  us 
on  this  occasion  to  declare,  that  the  statement  here  made  is  without 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING.  J79 

Shy  sort  of  foundation  in  truth.  The  practice  of  vilifying  the  estab- 
lished clergy  is  so  far  from  being  commonly  adopted  in  the  discourses 
either  of  dissenters  or  Methodists,  that  it  may  be  safely  afHrmed,  if 
there  are  any  instances  of  conduct  so  highly  improper,  they  are  ex- 
tremely rare,  and  that  where  the  dissenters  offend  in  this  particular 
once,  the  established  clergy  are  guilty  of  it  ten  times.  It  is  a  prac- 
tice which  the  late  Mr.  Wesley  discouraged,  in  his  connexion,  to  the 
utmost ;  nor  are  the  dissenters,  as  a  body,  less  scrupulous  and  deli- 
cate on  that  head.  Still,  however,  it  will  be  said,  a  principle  of  hos- 
tility to  th^  established  church  seems  inseparable  from  these  exertions  ; 
the  tendency  of  preaching  in  the  parishes  of  authorized  ministers  must 
be  to  alienate  the  people  from  the  established  mode  of  worship,  and, 
in  the  issue,  to  endanger  the  existence  of  the  national  church. 

As  this  objection  wears  a  more  plausible  appearance  than  any  other, 
and  has  been  urged  in  a  great  variety  of  forms,  the  author  must  beg 
the  patience  of  the  reader,  while  he  gives  it  a  full  and  distinct  ex- 
amination. 

1.  The  objection  we  are  considering  seems  to  imply,  on  the  part 
of  those  who  urge  it,  an  inattention  to  the  true  genius  and  design  of  a 
religious  establishment.  We  must  distinguish  between  the  design  of 
religion  itself  and  the  design  of  that  support  which  is  given  to  it  by 
human  laws.  The  design  of  religion  itself  is  to  discipline  the  mind 
and  prepare  the  heart  for  the  happiness  of  heaven.  The  design  of 
supporting  a  particular  form  of  religion  by  law  is  much  less  exten- 
sive ;  it  is  to  derive  from  it  that  security  which  it  never  fails  to  confer 
on  the  interests  of  civil  society.  This  may  be  termed  the  indirect 
benefit  of  religion ;  with  a  view  to  which  the  policy  of  legislation  has 
thought  it  right  to  incorporate  it  with  human  laws.  The  establish- 
ment of  a  religion  is  not  to  be  considered  as  a  final  end.  In  respect 
to  importance  it  is  never  to  be  confounded  with  religion,  or  even  to  be 
placed  on  a  level  with  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society,  to  which 
it  ought  ever  to  be  in  perfect  subordination.  It  aims  at  nothing  further 
than  to  secure  such  a  prevalence  of  religion  as  shall  make  men  con- 
scientious and  upright.  By  whatever  means  this  is  accomplished,  the 
true  design  of  every  religious  establishment  is  answered.  From  the 
indisposition  of  mankind  to  direct  their  thoughts  to  a  futurity ;  from 
their  proneness  to  immerse  themselves  in  present  and  sensible  objects, 
and  the  ignorance  which  follows  of  course,  it  has  been  thought  neces- 
sary to  set  apart  a  particular  order  of  men  to  inculcate  its  truths  and 
to  exemplify  its  duties.  Laws  will  not  be  obeyed,  harmony  in  society 
cannot  be  maintained,  without  virtue ;  virtue  cannot  subsist  without 
religion.  The  sentiments  of  religion,  it  is  thought,  will  be  eflaced 
from  the  mind  by  the  influence  of  worldly  passions  and  pursuits,  un- 
less it  is  recognised  by  the  sovereign,  and  public  teachers  appointed 
by  the  state. 

Whoever  attends  to  this  must  perceive  that  the  establishment  was 
intended,  not  to  correct  an  excess,  but  to  supply  a  defect;  not  to  pre- 
vent men  from  becoming  too  devout,  but  to  preserve  them  from  falling 
into  irreligion  and  vice.     It  was  not  because  men  are  too  much  dis- 

M2 


180  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

posed  to  be  religious,  but  because  they  are  too  apt  to  forget  it,  that 
our  forefathers  thought  proper  to  give  it  a  legal  establishment.  On  a 
similar  principle  universities  were  established  and  colleges  endov^^ed, 
to  stimulate  literary  ardour  and  facilitate  the  means  of  acquiring 
knowledge ;  and  not  that  it  might  be  made  a  crime  to  receive  instruc- 
tion in  any  other  place.  If  peculiar  privileges  and  honours  were  con- 
ferred on  these  seminaries,  it  was  not  with  a  view  to  limit,  confine, 
and  discourage,  but  to  animate  the  exertions  of  literary  talent.  If 
they  seemed  to  narrow  the  stream,  it  was  only  with  a  view  to  deepen 
the  current. 

To  attempt  to  restrain  the  prevalence  of  religion,  to  suppress  the 
efforts  of  good  men  for  the  promotion  of  piety,  under  pretence  of 
guarding  the  established  church,  is  to  lose  sight  of  the  design  of  all  reli- 
gion, and  to  counteract  the  purpose  for  which  the  establishment  of  it 
in  particular  was  made.  It  would  be  to  found  the  security  of  the 
church  on  the  ruins  of  religion. 

2.  They  who  urge  the  objection  seem  not  to  have  reflected  suffi- 
ciently on  the  prodigious  advantages  which  the  Church  of  England 
possesses  for  securing  its  existence  and  prosperity.  The  large  por- 
tion of  property  it  holds  gives  it  a  great  national  weight  and  import- 
ance. The  regular  gradations  of  authority  and  rank  cement  its 
several  parts  closely  together,  and  prepare  it  on  all  occasions  to  act 
with  the  utmost  promptitude  and  unanimity.  Its  ministers,  vested 
with  legal  authority  and  character,  are  the  natural  objects  of  a  vene- 
ration of  which  nothing  but  personal  misbehaviour  can  deprive  them. 

Mankind  are  apt  to  be  strongly  prejudiced  in  favour  of  whatever  is 
countenanced  by  antiquity,  enforced  by  authority,  and  recommended  by 
custom.  The  pleasure  of  acquiescing  in  the  decision  of  others  is  by 
most  men  so  much  preferred  to  the  toil  and  hazard  of  inquiry,  and  so 
few  are  either  able  or  disposed  to  examine  for  themselves,  that  the 
voice  of  law  will  generally  be  taken  for  the  dictates  of  justice. 

Nor  is  it  the  weakness  only  of  mankind  that  inclines  them  to  look 
with  a  favourable  eye  on  what  is  established ;  some  of  the  most 
amiable  propensities  of  the  heart  lean  the  same  way, — deference  to 
superior  wisdom  and  to  great  names  ;  the  love  of  quiet,  and  the  dread 
of  confusion  and  disorder.  These  considerations  will  prevail  over 
minds  which  are  too  virtuous  to  be  moved  by  a  gross  self-interest. 
Further,  the  religion  of  the  state  will  ever  be  the  religion  of  the  vain 
and  aspiring.  A  degree  of  ridicule  never  fails  to  be  attached  to  a 
religious  minority.  In  all  the  efforts  of  churchmen,  their  movements 
are  facilitated  by  the  current  of  public  opinion,  while  dissenters  are 
on  every  occasion  obstructed  by  public  prejudice.  Thus  churchmen 
set  out  with  a  partiality  on  their  side  which  nothing  but  neglect  and 
misconduct  can  destroy ;  dissenters,  with  a  weight  of  suspicion  and 
dislike  which  nothing  but  discreet  and  exemplary  behaviour  can 
remove. 

If  we  contemplate,  in  connexion  with  the  subject  we  are  upon,  the 
manners  and  institutions  of  the  British  nation,  we  shall  perceive  that 
the  established  church  in  these  kingdoms  possesses  such  pledges  of 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 


181 


its  safety  as  are  not  to  be  found  in  any  Protestant  community  besides. 
A  finished  English  education  is,  in  all  its  stages,  clerical ;  the  public 
seminaries  of  instruction,  together  with  the  two  universities,  being 
almost  entirely  under  the  conduct  of  ecclesiastics  ;  by  M'hich  means  a 
reverence  for  the  church  is  imbibed  with  the  first  elements  of  know- 
ledge. Its  splendid  literary  establishments,  its  magnificent  libraries 
the  accumulation  of  ages,  and,  above  all,  the  great  and  illustrious 
names  it  has  produced  in  every  department  of  genius  and  of  learning, 
the  glory  of  the  world ;  who  have  conferred  dignity,  not  so  much  on 
their  profession  as  on  their  species ;  gives  it,  in  a  literary  view,  a  de- 
cided superiority,  and  in  popular  opinion  an  exclusive  esteem.  The 
policy  of  modern  times  has,  in  addition  to  this,  confided  to  its  minis- 
ters more  and  more  of  the  administration  of  laws,  in  which  they  are 
become  the  immediate  organs  of  justice  to  the  people ;  and  the  claims 
of  spiritual  authority  are  hence  enforced  by  the  habits  of  civil  submission. 

Freed  from  the  fetters  of  celibacy,  which,  if  they  augment  its  zeal, 
must  narrow  its  influence  in  popish  countries,  it  strikes  its  roots  deep 
into  the  social  soil,  and  forms  numerous  alliances,  so  that  there  is 
scarcely  a  considerable  family  in  the  nation  which  is  not  immediately 
interested  in  its  support.  A  popish  clergy,  secluded  from  the  enjoy- 
ments of  domestic  life,  may  be  expected  indeed  to  have  a  more  eager 
ambition  for  the  advancement  of  their  order  in  consequence  of  their 
passions  being  all  directed  to  one  point ;  but  as  their  manners  must 
be  less  amiable,  so  from  this  insulated  condition  they  are  liable  to  fall 
without  a  struggle  and  without  pity.  They  are  a  loose  appendage  of 
the  state,  not  a  part  of  its  growth  and  substance.  With  respect  to  the 
English  clergy  it  is  quite  otherwise.  As  they  are  continually  receiving 
supplies  from  the  mass  of  the  community,  so  they  are  continually 
restoring  to  it  in  the  persons  of  their  sons  and  daughters  what  it  has 
lost.  By  these  means  a  continual  communication  is  maintained  with 
the  body  of  the  people,  manners  are  assimilated,  and  the  ties  of  tender- 
ness and  attachment  extended.  The  gradations  of  rank  also  which 
are  established  in  it  contribute  to  the  same  purpose,  and  exhibit  an 
image  of  the  poUtical  constitution  planted  in  every  corner  of  the  kingdom 
and  mingled  with  every  order  of  the  state  ;  while  its  inferior  members 
propagate  its  influence  among  the  commonalty,  it  allies  itself  on  the 
side  of  its  dignitaries  with  all  that  is  august,  basks  in  the  smile  of 
monarchs,  and  shares  in  the  splendour  of  courts. 

A  society  which  has  such  numerous  pledges  for  its  security,  which 
so  many  motives  concur  to  favour,  so  many  passions  to  support,  must 
be  guilty  of  some  extraordinary  misconduct  before  it  can  forfeit  the 
attachment  of  the  people.  It  is  evident  it  can  only  fall  under  the 
weight  of  its  own  abuses, 

3.  It  is  possible  indeed  to  conceive  a  degree  of  secularity  and  dis- 
sipation which  may  first  greatly  impair  its  influence  and  finally  en- 
danger its  existence.  In  an  age  not  remarkable  for  credulity  or 
superstition,  as  the  conduct  of  ecclesiastics  will  have  more  weight  than 
their  pretensions,  nothing  can  long  secure  them  from  popular  contempt 
but  exemplary  morals  and  diligence. 


182  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

To  invest  idleness  and  dissipation  with  the  privileges  of  laborious 
piety  is  an  impracticable  attempt.  For  by  a  constitution  more  ancient 
than  that  of  any  priesthood,  superior  degrees  of  sanctity  and  of  exer- 
tion will  gain  superior  esteem  as  their  natural  reward.  We  must  not 
•wonder  to  find  the  public  forget  the  reverence  due  to  the  sacred  pro- 
fession when  its  members  forget  the  spirit  and  neglect  the  duties  on 
which  that  reverence  was  founded.  The  natural  equity  of  mankind 
will  not  sutler  the  monopoly  of  contradictory  goods.  If  the  people  are 
expected  to  reverence  an  order,  it  must  be  from  the  consciousness  of 
benefits  received.  If  the  clergy  claim  authority,  it  must  be  accom- 
panied with  a  solicitude  for  the  spiritual  interest  of  their  flocks,  and 
labour  sustained.  To  enjoy  at  once  both  honour  and  ease  never  fell  to 
the  share  of  any  profession.  If  the  clergy  neglect  their  charge,  if  they 
conform  to  the  spirit  of  the  world,  and  engage  with  eagerness  in  the 
pursuits  of  ambition  or  of  pleasure,  it  will  be  impossible  for  any  human 
policy  to  preserve  them  from  sinking  in  the  public  esteem. 

4.  As  far  as  the  attachment  of  the  people  to  their  established  minis- 
ters is  diminished  in  consequence  of  misconduct  on  their  part,  it  will 
not  be  remedied  by  excluding  other  instructers.  To  deprive  them 
of  every  other  means  of  information  may  make  them  heathens,  but 
■will  not  make  them  churchmen.  The  established  ministers  are  either 
equal  to  others  in  zeal  and  diligence,  or  inferior.  If  they  are  equally 
laborious  and  exemplary,  what  have  they  to  fear,  while  they  have 
every  advantage  in  their  possession  which  superior  learning,  a  legal 
character,  and  the  countenance  of  their  superiors  can  confer?  To 
assert  that  the  same  degree  of  diligence  and  piety  in  a  clergyman  will 
not  produce  an  equal  effect  as  when  they  are  exerted  by  a  dissenter 
is  to  yield  the  cause  of  the  establishment  at  once ;  for  it  is  to  affirm 
that  there  is  a  source  of  weakness  in  the  very  nature  of  an  establish- 
ment which  prevents  equal  means  in  other  respects  from  being  equally 
influential ;  an  extraordinary  assertion,  which  the  friends  of  the  estab- 
lished church  would  be,  we  should  suppose,  the  last  to  make.  The 
policy  of  an  establishment  is  founded  on  a  supposition  that  it  is  the 
most  effectual  mode  of  inculcating  some  degree  of  religion,  and  of 
impressing  sentiments  of  piety  on  the  minds  of  men.  But  if,  on  the 
contrary,  it  be  found  that  exertions  merely  equal  made  in  any  other 
form  produce  more  powerful  effects,  that  supposition  is  invalidated,  and 
the  structure  raised  upon  it  falls  to  the  ground.  To  give  religion  a 
legal  subsistence,  it  seems  by  this  reasoning,  is  so  far  from  arming  it 
with  superior  energy,  that  it  is  of  all  the  modes  under  which  it  can 
appear  the  most  disadvantageous,  and  ignorance  and  fanaticism  gain 
an  easy  triumph  over  it. 

If  the  other  supposhion  be  taken,  that  the  established  ministers  are 
inferior  to  others  in  diligence  and  exertion,  and  that  on  this  account 
their  popularity  is  endangered,  to  give  them  the  monopoly  of  religious 
instruction  is  to  violate  every  principle  of  reason  and  equity.  It  is 
punishing  the  innocent  for  the  faults  of  the  guilty.  It  is  to  reward  a 
breach  of  trust  with  an  enlargement  of  power.  Instead  of  quiclcening 
indolence  or  correcting  abuse  it  is  conferring  impunity  on  both.     The 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING.  183 

natural  remedy  for  whatever  inconveniences  are  experienced  or  appre- 
hended from  estabhshed  abuses  is  the  institution  of  disciphne  and  the 
exercise  of  wholesome  correction  by  the  rulers  of  the  church,  who  are 
invested  with  adequate  power  for  that  purpose.  To  look  out  and  ask 
for  an  external  force  to  repel  the  consequences  of  an  inward  disease, — 
to  demand  the  interposition  of  the  legislature  to  protect  them  from  the 
effects  of  their  own  abuses  while  they  refuse  the  proper  remedy,  is 
repugnant  to  every  maxim  of  justice.  They  ought  at  least  to  wait 
until  the  abuses  they  complain  of  are  remedied — until  the  internal 
resources  of  reformation  are  employed.  With  little  propriety  or  grace 
can  they  complain  of  impertinent  intruders  who  are  inattentive  to  the 
duties  of  their  allotted  station.  In  the  report  of  the  Lincolnshire 
clergy*  it  is  frankly  acknowledged  that  much  of  the  decline  of  religion 
is  to  be  imputed  to  the  neglect  of  the  clergy ;  and  yet  almost  in  the 
same  breath  they  express  a  desire  that  the  legislature  would  give  them 
power  to  expel  intruders  from  their  parishes.  It  has  usually  been  ex- 
pected that  superior  claims  should  be  founded  at  least  on  the  pretence 
of  superior  merits.  But  here  the  order  of  things  is  reversed.  At  the 
very  moment  they  are  asking  for  an  increase  of  power,  they  confess 
themselves  unworthy  of  it,  by  having  abused  or  neglected  to  employ  the 
power  already  intrusted  into  their  hands.  Not  content  to  escape  with- 
out punishment,  they  ask  to  be  rewarded  for  a  breach  of  ecclesiastical 
trust  and  the  want  of  clerical  virtues.  Whatever  we  may  think  of 
their  delicacy,  we  cannot  but  commend  their  prudence  in  not  putting 
their  names  to  such  a  paper. 

5.  It  deserves  to  be  considered  what  efi'ect  the  prohibition  of  other 
instruction  is  likely  to  have  on  the  conduct  of  the  clergy  themselves. 
Is  it  likely  to  diminish  or  increase  the  frequency  of  non-residence,  or 
the  extent  of  secular  and  dissipated  habits  ?  Will  it  tend  to  augment 
their  professional  diligence  and  zeal,  the  surest  support  of  an  ecclesi- 
astical order?  Will  the  monopoly  of  religious  instruction  fail  to  pro- 
duce the  effect  of  all  other  monopolies  1  While  men  are  accustomed 
to  compare  rival  pretensions,  while  emulation  continues  to  be  classed 
among  human  passions,  these  questions  will  admit  of  but  one  answer. 
A  generous  competition  is  the  animating  spirit  of  every  profession, 
without  which  it  droops  and  languishes.  If  we  loojc  around  us  we 
shall  perceive  that  all  the  discoveries  which  have  enriched  science, 
and  the  improvements  which  have  embellished  life,  are  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  competition  of  nations  with  nations,  of  cities  with  cities,  and  of 
men  with  men.  From  causes  too  obvious  to  need  explanation,  there  is 
less  of  this  spirit  in  the  clerical  profession  than  in  any  other,  which  is 
the  principal  reason  of  the  talent  of  preaching  having  been  so  little 
cultivated. 

It  is  easy  to  spp,  thpn,  what  will  be  the  consequence  of  extinguishing 
the  small  remains  of  emulation  or  jealousy,  call  it  by  what  name  you 
please,  which  springs  from  the  complete  toleration  of  a  diversity  of  sects. 
If  the  dread  of  intrusion  (as  it  is  called)  into  their  parishes  is  not 
sufficient  to  prevent  some  from  neglecting  their  pastoral  duties,  this 

•  Cii-ctJlated  in  1801  or  1802— Ed. 


184  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

neglect  will  be  much  more  profound  when  there  is  nothing  to  disturb 
their  repose.  When  the  minister  fears  no  rival,  and  the  people 
despair  of  any  remedy,  the  inattention  of  the  one  and  the  ignorance  of 
the  other  will  increase  in  equal  proportion. 


THE  IMPOLICY  OF  INTOLERANCE. 

There  is  another  objection  frequently  urged  against  village  preach- 
ing which  will  deserve  our  attention.  It  is  alleged  that  the  gross 
fanaticism  which  distinguishes  the  self-appointed  teachers  of  religion 
tends  to  bring  Christianity  into  contempt,  and  threatens  the  most 
serious  mischief  to  the  cause  of  enlightened  piety.  That  fanaticism  is 
an  evil,  and  that  a  considerable  portion  of  it  may  frequently  be  blended 
with  those  efforts  to  revive  religion  for  which  we  are  pleading,  will 
not  be  denied.  A  little  reflection,  however,  may  convince  us  that  the 
danger  from  tliis  quarter  is  not  so  alarming  as  might  be  apprehended 
at  first  sight. 

Fanaticism,  as  far  as  we  are  at  present  concerned  with  it,  may  be 
defined,  such  an  overwhelming  impression  of  the  ideas  relating  to 
the  future  world  as  disqualifies  for  the  duties  of  life. 

1.  From  the  very  nature  of  fanaticism,  it  is  an  evil  of  short  duration. 
As  it  implies  an  irregular  movement  or  an  inflamed  state  of  the  pas- 
sions, when  these  return  to  their  natural  state  it  subsides.  Nothing 
that  is  violent  will  last  long.  The  vicisshudes  of  the  world  and  the 
business  of  life  are  admirably  adapted  to  abate  the  excesses  of 
religious  enthusiasm.  In  a  state  where  there  are  such  incessant  calls 
to  activity,  where  want  presses,  desire  allures,  and  ambition  inflames, 
there  is  little  room  to  dread  an  excessive  attention  to  the  objects  of  an 
invisible  futurity. 

A  few  rare  examples  of  this  kind  might  perhaps  be  found  by  diligent 
inquiry,  over  which  infidelity  would  triumph  and  piety  drop  a  tear.  It 
is  not  imcommon,  however,  to  find  those  who  at  the  commencement 
of  their  religious  course  have  betrayed  symptoms  of  enthusiasm 
become  in  the  issue  the  most  amiable  characters.  With  the  increase 
of  knowledge  tl>e  intemperate  ardour  of  their  zeal  has  subsided  into  a 
steady  faith  and  fervent  charity,  so  as  to  exemplify  the  promise  of 
Scripture,  that  "  the  path  of  the  just"  shall  be  "  as  the  shining  light, 
which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  As  the  energy 
of  the  religious  principle  is  exerted  in  overcoming  the  world,  so  that 
variety  of  action  and  enlarged  experience  which  the  business  of  life 
supplies  serves  to  correct  its  excesses  and  restrain  its  aberrations. 

There  are  some  who,  proscribing  the  exercise  of  the  affections  en- 
tirely in  religion,  would  reduce  Christianity  to  a  mere  rule  of  life  ;  but 
as  such  persons  betray  an  extreme  ignorance  of  human  nature  as  well 
as  of  the  Scriptures,  I  shall  content  myself  with  remarking,  that  the 
apostles,  had  they  lived  in  the  days  of  these  men,  would  have  been  as 
little  exempt  from  their  ridicule  as  any  other  itinerants.  If  the  supreme 
love  of  God,  a  solicitude  to  advance  his  honour,  ardent  desires  after 


ON  TOLERATION.  185 

happiness,  together  with  a  comparative  deadness  to  the  present  state, 
be  enthusiasm,  it  is  that  enthusiasm  which  animated  the  Saviour  and 
breathes  throughout  the  Scriptures. 

2.  In  admitting  that  a  portion  of  enthusiasm  may  possibly  be  blended 
with  the  efforts  to  revive  serious  religion  alluded  to,  we  are  far  from 
meaning  to  insinuate  that  that  is  their  distinguishing  character ;  or  that 
those  who  exert  themselves  in  that  way  can,  as  a  body,  be  justly 
classed  with  fanatics.  The  far  greater  part  are  men  of  good  natural 
sense  united  to  fervent  piety.  If  not  possessed  of  the  advantages  of  a 
learned  education,  they  are  by  no  means  ignorant.  They  have  living 
knowledge.  Familiarly  conversant  with  the  Bible,  they  are  men  of 
devotional  habits  and  of  exemplary  conduct.  The  insuhing  epithets 
applied  to  such  men  might  naturally  provoke  retaliation,  and  lead  to 
an  inquiry  how  far  the  learning  so  ostentatiously  displayed  is  connected 
with  religious  knowledge  ;  when  it  would  perhaps  be  found  that  some 
of  their  revilers  are  better  able  to  solve  a  geometrical  problem  than  a 
theological  difficulty,  and  are  better  acquainted  with  the  epistles  of 
Horace  than  those  of  St.  Paul.  But  as  it  is  my  wish  strenuously  to 
avoid  whatever  might  awaken  angry  passions,  I  forbear  to  press  these 
inquiries. 

Enthusiasm  is  an  evil  much  less  to  be  dreaded  than  superstition. 
The  latter  is  a  disease  of  opinion,  which  may  be  transmitted  with 
fresh  accumulation  of  error  from  age  to  age.  It  is  the  spirit  of  slum- 
ber in  which  whole  nations  are  immersed.  Placing  religion,  which  is 
most  foreign  to  its  nature,  in  depending  for  acceptance  with  God  on 
absurd  penances  or  unmeaning  ceremonies,  it  resigns  the  understanding 
to  ignorance  and  the  heart  to  insensibility.  No  generous  sentiments, 
no  active  virtues  ever  issue  from  superstition. 

Superstition  is  the  disease  of  nations,  enthusiasm  that  of  individuals  ; 
the  former  grows  more  inveterate  by  time,  the  latter  is  cured  by  it. 

We  hope  the  remembrance  of  popish  cruelties  is  not  so  far  effaced 
from  the  minds  of  our  countrymen  as  to  permit  them  to  see  the  forge 
of  the  giant  without  terror. 


ON   TOLERATION. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  last  part  of  our  subject,  which  relates  to  the 
expediency  and  justice  of  legal  interference  in  the  suppression  of  these 
attempts.  And  here  I  feel  a  solicitude  lest  I  should  give  a  wrong 
touch  to  the  ark  of  religious  liberty,  and  mjure  the  cause  which  I  wish 
to  promote. 

1.  Toleration  of  a  diversity  of  worship  has  now  been  legally  estab- 
lished and  uninterruptedly  practised  for  more  than  a  century  ;  during 
which  we  have  enjoyed  a  degree  of  internal  peace  and  prosperity 
unexampled  in  any  former  age.  This,  which  was  the  thing  most 
wanted  to  perfect  the  constitution,  has  softened  and  harmonized  the 


186  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

spirits  of  men,  has  mitigated  the  fierceness  of  rehgious  factions,  and 
has  made  them  of  one  heart  and  mind  in  the  love  of  their  country  and 
attachment  to  its  sovereign.  The  national  wealth  has  been  augmented, 
commerce  extended,  arts  invented  or  improved,  and  society  embellished 
with  an  additional  portion  of  elegance  and  humanity.  The  resources 
of  public  strength  have  been  enlarged,  and  the  nation  has  become  more 
formidable  in  war  and  more  respected  in  peace.  The  struggles  of  party 
produce  no  other  effects  than  clamorous  invective  and  intrigue  ;  and 
public  rumour,  instead  of  being  occupied  with  the  horrors  of  civil  com- 
motion, announces  the  intelligence  of  the  fall  of  the  ministry,  or  some  new 
arrangement  in  the  cabinet.  This  toleration  has  materially  advanced 
the  interest  of  the  established  church  itself,  by  abating  the  acrimony 
of  its  adversaries,  and  affording  room  for  the  display  of  talent  in  other 
communities,  the  surest  prevention  of  indolence  in  its  own. 

The  principles  of  toleration  also  harmonize  with  that  refinement  of 
thinking  and  spirit  of  research  which  has  distinguished  the  last  cen- 
tury ;  in  consequence  of  which  this  important  advantage  has  been 
reaped,  that  the  opinions  of  the  speculative,  which  always  have  ulti- 
mately great  effect,  coincide  with  the  practice  of  the  constitution. 
Hence  it  is  that  England  may  be  considered  as  the  native  soil  of  bold 
original  minds ;  nor  is  there  any  danger  of  our  being  reasoned  into  a 
dislike  of  the  constitution. 

And  shall  we  endanger  the  loss  of  all  these  advantages  by  adopting 
a  new  course  of  policy?  What  security  will  they  afford  us  who 
invite  us  to  tread  in  new  and  perilous  paths  1  What  security  will  they 
afford  us,  that  the  same  tranquillity  and  the  same  prosperity  will 
accompany  us  in  so  great  a  change ;  when  the  very  essence  of  the 
constitution  shall  have  been  altered,  and  the  very  words  which  Eng- 
lishmen were  proud  to  pronounce  expunged  from  the  vocabulary  ? 

A  dread  of  innovation  has  hitherto  prevented  the  correction  of  some 
flagrant  abuses  ;  yet  it  is  rather  extraordinary  that  some  of  those  who 
profess  to  have  most  of  that  dread  are  among  the  most  clamorous  for 
an  innovation  in  the  toleration  act. 

But  is  not  this  a  most  serious  innovation  ?  Must  we  then  understand 
these  men  to  mean  that  they  are  only  enemies  to  such  innovations  as 
are  on  the  side  of  liberty,  and  that  they  are  prepared  to  trample  on  the 
most  fundamental  laws,  to  promote  persecution  and  tyranny  ?  With 
such  men  it  is  to  little  purpose  to  expostulate  ;  we  leave  them  to  the 
enjoyment  of  that  calm  sunshine  which  must  fill  the  hearts  of  men 
of  so  much  purity  and  benevolence. 

To  others  it  may  be  proper  to  suggest,  that  if  innovations  are  dan- 
gerous, they  are  not  equally  so,  and  that  there  is  a  great  difference 
between  innovations  which  favour  the  spirit  of  a  constitution  and  those 
that  contradict  it.  The  former  may  be  compared  to  the  natural  growth 
of  the  human  body,  the  latter  to  the  violent  dismemberment  of  its 
parts.  The  former  completes  an  imperfect  analogy ;  the  latter  de- 
stroys just  proportions.  The  former  is  the  removal  of  an  obstruction 
which  prevents  the  equable  motion  of  the  machine  ;  the  latter  occa- 
sions the  collision  of  interfering  principles.     When  oppressive  laws 


ON  TOLERATION. 


187 


are  ingrafted  on  a  free  constitution,  the  contrast  of  liberty  and  tyranny- 
will  make  the  oppression  to  be  doubly  felt.  In  such  a  situation,  the 
free  and  undaunted  spirit  which  the  constitution  has  cherished  suffers 
violence.  The  precedents  of  past  times,  the  examples  of  their  ances- 
tors, the  fundamental  principles  of  the  constitution,  have  taught  them 
to  consider  themselves  as  free.  By  the  proposed  laws  they  are  in- 
structed to  look  upon  themselves  in  a  new  light.  They  are  commanded 
to  unlearn  all  that  they  have  learned,  to  descend  from  the  dignity  of 
freemen  to  the  abject  condition  of  a  slave.  Slavery  may  exist  where 
freedom  is  unknown,  without  endangering  the  public  tranquillity ;  in 
some  coimtries  perhaps  without  destruction  of  public  happiness.  But 
the  slightest  invasion  of  the  liberties  of  a  free  country  awakens  a 
jealousy  and  resentment  which  are  not  easily  appeased.  Let  those 
then  who  are  alarmed  at  the  danger  of  innovation  seriously  reflect  on 
the  possible  consequences  of  an  innovation  so  momentous.  A  free 
and  a  despotic  state  may  both  be  compatible  with  liberty ;  but  who 
ever  would  voluntarily  make  the  transition  from  one  to  the  other? 

2.  The  liberty  of  worshipping  God  in  that  manner  which  the  con- 
science of  every  individual  dictates,  provided  nothing  be  introduced 
into  worship  incompatible  with  good  morals,  may  be  justly  claimed  as 
an  inalienable  right.  The  relation  which  subsists  between  man  and 
his  Maker,  and  the  consequent  obligation  to  worship  him,  is  prior  to 
the  civil  relation  between  magistrates  and  subjects.  It  is  a  more  im- 
portant relation,  since  all  the  good  a  creature  can  enjoy  is  derived  from 
it,  and  all  his  reasonable  hopes  of  happiness  on  the  goodness  of  the 
Almighty.  It  differs,  too,  from  every  other  in  that  it  is  invisible, 
perpetual,  and  eternal.  A  man  may  or  may  not  be  the  member  of  a. 
civil  community,  but  he  is  always  the  creature  of  God.  For  these 
reasons,  political  duties,  or  those  which  result  from  the  relation  of  the 
subject  to  the  prince,  must,  in  their  nature,  be  subordinate  to  religious. 
When  the  commands  of  a  civil  superior  interfere  with  those  which  we 
conscientiously  believe  to  be  the  laws  of  God,  submission  to  the  former 
must  be  criminal ;  for  the  two  obligations  are  not  equipollent,  but  the 
former  is  essential,  invariable,  and  paramuunl  to  every  other  :  "  Whether 
it  be  right,"  said  the  apostles,  "  to  obey  God  or  man,  judge  ye."  But 
if  an  active  obedience  in  such  circumstances  be  crimirial,  to  prescribe 
it  cannot  be  innocent,  since  it  would  be  absurd  to  affirm  that  exercise  of 
authority  to  be  right  to  which  it  is  wrong  to  submit.  Rights  and  duties 
are  correlatives.  A  right  to  command  necessarily  implies  the  en- 
forcing that  which  is  right  with  respect  to  those  to  whom  the  duty  of 
submission  belongs.  Nor  is  it  to  any  purpose  to  allege  that  the 
worship  prescribed  is  rational  and  scriptural,  and  far  more  excellent 
than  that  which  is  prohibited.  For  if  we  remember  that  worship  is 
no  other  than  the  outward  expression  of  the  love  and  fear  of  God, 
we  must  perceive,  that  to  become  acceptable  it  is  above  all  things 
necessary  that  it  be  such  as  approves  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  worship- 
per; such  as  he  sincerely  believes  will  be  pleasing  to  God.  It  is 
impossible  to  please  God  without  a  sincere  intention  to  please  him. 
We  may  hope,  from  hini  who  knows  our  frame,  for  a  merciful  indul- 


188  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

gence  to  the  imperfections  which  spring  from  involmitary  ignorance 
or  latent  prejudice.  It  agrees  with  his  benignity  to  suppose  he  will 
graciously  accept  that  worship  which  is  not  the  best  in  itself,  pro- 
viding it  be  the  best  we  know  how  to  present.  But  to  worship  with 
those  rites  and  ceremonies  which  our  conscience  does  not  approve, 
however  excellent  in  themselves,  is  an  insult  to  the  Deity.  A  Jew, 
for  example,  who  joined  in  the  worship  of  a  Christian  church,  while  he 
retained  the  incredulity  which  distinguishes  his  nation,  would  be  guilty 
of  the  highest  impiety ;  nor  would  it  be  any  extenuation  of  his  fault  to 
allege  that  the  worship  in  which  he  assisted  was  founded  on  Scripture, 
and  commanded  by  God,  while  his  conviction  was  contrary.  He  who 
is  utterly  careless  of  the  favour  of  God,  and  without  any  solicitude 
respecting  a  future  world,  will  naturally  follow  the  stream  of  authority 
or  fashion,  and  adopt  any  mode  of  religion  which  happens  to  have  the 
ascendency.  But  the  sincere  worshipper  of  God  will  find  it  impos- 
sible to  comply  with  any  religious  injunctions  which  appear  to  him  to 
interfere  with  the  will  of  God. 

Besides,  as  is  urged  with  great  force  by  Mr.  Locke,  if  the  magis- 
trate of  one  country  has  a  right  to  impose  his  religion  under  pains  and 
penalties,  the  magistrates  of  all  other  countries  must  have  an  equal 
right.  Religious  truth  will  vary  with  the  boundaries  of  nations  ;  and 
with  equal  justice  the  pope  will  be  revered  in  Spain,  Mahomet  in 
Turkey,  and  Brahma  in  India.  It  is  easy  to  see  to  what  those  princi- 
ples tend  which  imply  that  there  is  nothing  determinate,  nothing  sacred 
in  religion,  and  that  all  modes  of  worship  are  equally  pleasing  to  God, 
and  equally  useful.  The  principles  of  persecution,  pushed  to  their 
just  consequence,  terminate  in  Hobbism.* 

It  is  worth  while  to  consider  what  is  likely  to  be  the  effect  of  en- 
acting coercive  laws  in  religion.  If  the  men  at  whom  they  are  aimed 
are  conscientious,  they  will  still  persevere.  They  will  reply  to  the 
injunction  of  silence  what  the  apostles  did  to  the  chief  priest,  "  whether 
it  be  right  to  obey  God  or  man,  judge  ye."  They  will  still  persist  in 
their  attempts  to  evangelize  the  poor.  This  will  necessitate  the  exer- 
cise of  greater  severities,  tlie  failure  of  which  will  be  considered  as  a 
demand  for  punishments  still  heavier,  until  the  magistrate  has  pro- 
ceeded to  banishment,  confiscation,  and  death.  For  it  is  the  inconve- 
nience attending  persecution  that  it  is  necessarily  progressive.  Small 
punishments  only  irritate.  It  commences  with  an  intention  of  sup- 
pressing error ;  baffled  in  its  first  attempt,  and  stung  with  disappoint- 
ment, it  soon  loses  sight  of  its  original  design ;  it  soon  degenerates 
into  a  settled  resolution  to  subdue  contumacy,  and  strike  terror.  It 
becomes  a  fearful  struggle  between  power  and  fortitude  ;  the  power  of 
inflicting  suffering,  and  that  of  enduring,  which  shall  wear  the  other 
out.  Let  those,  then,  who  are  advocates  for  coercive  measures,  not  con- 
tent themselves  with  contemplating  those  mild  expedients  which  may 
first  present  themselves  to  their  minds,  but  prepare  for  the  consequences, 

*  It  is  curious  that  Mr.  Hall  and  his  distinguished  friend  Sir  James  Macintosh  should,  unknown 
to  each  other,  at  different  times  and  by  a  different  course,  arrive  at  a  coincident  result  not  likely  to 
occur  to  ordinary  minds.  Sir  James,  in  his  valuable  "  Preliminary  Dissertation,"  Ency.  Britam. 
p.  319,  says,  "  A  Hobbist  is  the  only  consistent  persecutor. "—Ed. 


ON  TOLERATION.  jgg 

and  lay  their  accounts  with  being  impelled  to  the  exercise  of  the  last 
severities.  Let  them  expect  to  see  dungeons  crammed  with  prisoners, 
and  scaffolds  streaming  with  blood.  Will  any  thing  but  the  most  unre- 
mitting vigilance,  the  most  unrelenting  system  of  espionage,  prevent 
every  class  of  dissenters  and  Methodists  from  fleeing  from  such  a 
country,  and  seeking  an  asylum  in  a  foreign  land? 

It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  the  wound  which  this  will  inflict  on  the 
population  and  prosperity  of  the  empire.  That  the  dissenters  are,  as 
a  body,  an  industrious  and  sober  people,  their  enemies  will  not  deny ; 
and  that  the  commercial  prosperity  of  a  country  is  closely  involved 
in  the  preservation  of  such  a  class  of  people  is  equally  undeniable. 
The  loss  sustained  by  France  in  the  exile  of  a  million  of  Protestants, 
by  the  repeal  of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  has  never  yet  been  repaired. 
Nor  was  there  ever  a  period  when  the  hazarding  such  a  loss  would 
be  more  impolitic  than  the  present ;  when  the  flourishing  state  of  trade 
and  commerce  is  essential  to  the  stability  of  the  government,  and  in  a 
manner  to  the  national  existence.  For  the  diminution  of  revenue,  and 
the  disorganization  which  a  considerable  failure  in  the  produce  of  the 
taxes  M'ould  occasion,  Ave  shall  meet  with  a  miserable  compensation 
in  a  forced  and  hypocritical  uniformity  in  worship. 

"Non  tali  auxilio  nee  defensioribus  istis 

Tempus  eget" 

Virgil. 

Will  they  whose  pride  and  violence  have  produced  this  be  able  to 
remedy  the  mischief?  Will  lofty  pretensions  to  unity,  will  tragic 
declamations  on  the  sin  of  schism,  and  abandoning  dissenters  to  the 
uncovenanted  mercies  of  God? 

The  consequences  of  such  an  event  deserve  also  to  be  considered 
in  another  point  of  view.  It  surely  requires  but  little  candour  to 
acknowledge  that  the  deprivations  and  discredit  to  which  dissenters 
are  exposed  make  it  probable  that,  however  in  the  judgment  of  their 
opponents  they  are  erroneous,  they  are  at  least  conscientious.  What- 
ever may  be  imagined  of  the  caprice,  the  levity,  or  obstinacy  of  indi- 
viduals, nothing  but  a  sense  of  duty,  it  may  be  fairly  presumed,  could 
prevail  on  numerous  bodies  of  men  to  place  themselves  in  that  situa- 
tion. In  every  country,  it  is  no  impeachment  of  the  national  estab- 
lishment to  suppose  that  many  of  those  who  continue  out  of  its  pale, 
and  decline  its  emoluments,  are  men  of  serious  piety.  If  we. may 
form  any  conjecture  of  the  dissenters  of  the  present  day  from  those 
of  former  times,  it  is  obvious  that  my  last  remark  will  apply  to  them 
with  peculiar  force.  As  the  loss  of  virtue  is  the  greatest  loss  a  nation 
can  sustain,  so  the  expulsion  of  those  who  have  been  distinguished  by 
possessing  a  superior  degree  of  piety  is  an  ill  omen,  an  alarming  ad- 
vance towards  a  general  corruption  of  morals.  Men  of  true  piety,  in 
whatever  communities  they  are  found,  "  are  the  salt  of  the  earth." 
Their  example  corroborates  the  sentiments  of  virtue,  and  preserves 
from  degradation  the  standard  of  morals.  Vice,  naturally  mean  and 
cowardly,  is  abashed  and  confounded  before  the  majesty  of  virtue. 


190  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

The  efficacy  of  good  examples  in  the  formation  of  public  opinion  is 
incalculable.  Though  men  justify  their  conduct  by  reasons,  and  some- 
times bring  the  very  rules  of  virtue  to  the  touchstone  of  abstraction, 
yet  they  principally  act  from  example.  Metaphysical  reasons  have, 
in  reality,  had  as  little  to  do  in  the  formation  of  the  principles  of 
morals,  as  rules  of  grammar  in  the  original  structure  of  language,  or 

those  of  criticism  in  the  formation  of  orators  and  poets. 

******  *  *  *  * 

******  *  *  *  * 

But  if  the  influence  of  example  is  so  extensive,  and  if  it  be  admitted 
that  the  dissenters,  as  a  body,  are  exemplary  for  industry,  sobriety, 
and  a  serious  sense  of  religion,  the  sacrifice  of  so  large  a  portion  of 
national  virtue  must  be  confessed  to  be  an  evil  of  the  first  magnitude ; 
to  say  nothing  of  the  justice  of  the  Divine  administration,  which  is 
wont  to  make  the  departure  of  the  pious  from  among  a  people  the 
signal  for  pouring  out  its  vials  upon  guilty  cities  and  nations.  Though 
such  an  event  is  alarming  at  all  times,  yet  the  peculiar  complexion  of 
the  present  renders  it  more  so  than  ever.  To  every  impartial  observer 
it  must  be  obvious  that  the  present  times  are  distinguished  by  an  un- 
exampled relaxation  of  manners ;  or  such  levity  and  indifference  to 
every  thing  serious  as  threatens  an  open  revolt  from  Christianity. 
That  rapacity  and  luxury,  a  love  of  pleasure,  together  with  an  open 
disdain  for  the  duties  of  religion,  have  rapidly  advanced  within  the 
last  twenty  years,  can  as  little  be  denied. 

And  is  this  a  season  in  which  we  can  safely  sacrifice  a  large  portion 
of  public  virtue  and  piety  ?  I  am  aware  that  the  dissenters  are  con- 
sidered as  a  precise  and  narrow-minded  people,  whose  minds  have  not 
expanded  with  the  growing  improvements  of  the  age,  and  that  not  a 
little  ridicule  has  attached  to  them  on  that  account :  but  may  not  this 
unyielding  austerity,  and  these  recluse  manners,  be  a  useful  corrective 
to  the  dissipation  of  the  age  ?  While  the  polished  manners  of  one 
class  of  society  contribute  to  its  embellishment,  may  not  the  severer 
virtues  of  another  be  equally  beneficial  in  affording  it  stability  and 
strength  1  Refinement  may  point  the  spire,  but  it  is  the  plain  princi- 
ples of  virtue  which  alone  form  the  basis  of  the  social  fabric. 

It  will  not  be  thought  a  digression  from  the  present,  subject  to 
remark  the  consequences  which  followed  in  France  from  the  repeal  of 
the  edict  of  Nantes ;  to  which  the  measures  in  question  bear  a  strong 
resemblance.  By  that  event  France  deprived  herself  of  a  million 
of  her  most  industrious  subjects,  who  carried  their  industry,  their 
arts,  and  their  riches  into  other  countries.  The  loss  which  her  trade 
and  manufactures  sustained  by  this  event  was  no  doubt  prodigious. 
But  it  is  not  in  that  view  my  subject  leads  me  to  consider  the  ill  conse- 
quences of  that  step.  She  lost  a  people  whose  simple,  frugal  manners, 
and  whose  conscientious  piety,  were  well  adapted  to  stem  the  growing 
corruption  of  the  times,  while  the  zeal  and  piety  of  their  pastors  were 
a  continual  stimulus  to  awaken  the  exertions  of  the  national  clergy. 

If  France  had  never  had  her  Saurins,  her  Claudes,  her  De  Plessis 
Mornays,  her  national  church  had  never  boasted  the  genius  of  Bossuet 


ON  TOLERATION.  JQl 

and  the  virtues  of  Fenelon.  From  that  fatal  moment  she  put  a  period 
to  the  toleration  of  the  Protestants,  the  corruptions  of  the  clergy,  the 
abuses  of  the  church,  the  impiety  of  the  people,  met  with  no  check,  till 
infidelity  of  the  worst  sort  pervaded  and  ruined  the  nation.  When  the 
remote  as  well  as  immediate  effects  of  that  edict  which  suppressed  the 
Protestants  are  taken  into  the  account, — when  we  consider  the  careless 
security  and  growing  corruption  which  hung  over  the  Gallican  church 
in  consequence  of  it,  it  will  not  be  thought  too  much  to  affirm,  that  to 
that  measure  may  be  traced  the  destruction  of  the  monarchy  and  the 
ruin  of  the  nation. 

He  who  considers  what  it  is  that  constitutes  the  force  of  penal 
laws  will  find  it  is  their  agreement  with  the  moral  feelings  which 
nature  has  planted  in  the  breast.  When  the  actions  they  punish  are 
such,  and  only  such,  as  the  tribunal  of  conscience  has  already  con- 
demned, they  are  the  constant  object  of  respect  and  reverence.  They 
enforce  and  corroborate  the  principles  of  moral  order,  by  publishing 
its  decisions  and  executing  its  sanctions.  They  present  to  the  view 
of  mankind  an  august  image  of  a  moral  administration, — a  representa- 
tion in  miniature  of  the  eternal  justice  which  presides  in  the  dispen- 
sations of  the  Almighty.  We  behold  nothing  of  the  passions  of  men; 
we  forget  their  agency,  and  seem  to  see  nothing  but  justice  and  order 
appearing  for  a  moment  on  the  earth,  to  restore  the  tranquillity  and 
correct  the  disorders  of  society.  The  sentiments  of  morality  and  the 
sanctions  of  law  maintain,  in  such  a  situation,  a  reciprocal  influence 
over  each  other.  The  former  derive  additional  authority  from  public 
opinion,  and  the  latter  appear  sacred  and  venerable  in  consequence  of 
their  coincidence  with  the  dictates  of  conscience.  When  criminal 
law  thus  concurs  with  the  maxims  of  private  morality,  by  corroborating 
the  dictates  of  conscience  and  inspiring  the  love  of  justice,  tranquillity, 
and  order,  and  the  advancement  of  the  public  good,  every  innocent 
person  becomes  interested  in  maintaining  their  authority  and  promoting 
their  execution.  Every  sentiment  of  the  mind,  the  sense  of  security, 
the  love  of  the  public,  the  sentiment  of  justice,  the  abhorrence  of  crime, 
are  leagued  on  the  side  of  the  laws,  and  are  so  many  securities  for 
their  due  execution.  It  has  been  found  by  experience,  as  the  result 
of  these  principles,  that  laws  become  feeble  and  relaxed,  not  only 
when  they  punish  innocent  objects,  but  when  the  punishments  they 
assign  are  disproportionate  to  the  offence.  The  want  of  harmony 
between  the  decision  of  the  public  and  the  private  tribunal  interposes 
an  invariable  obstruction  to  their  observance ;  for  crimes  must  be  de- 
tected and  punishments  inflicted  by  men  who  will  not  lend  their  aid  to 
enforce  what  they  secretly  condemn.  Hence  laws  which  are  enacted 
with  precipitance  and  passion,  or  under  the  influence  of  party  motives, 
when  they  come  to  be  executed  will  have  to  encounter  a  perpetual 
friction,  arising  from  their  repugnance  to  the  manners  and  sentiments 
of  the  public.  By  these  means  public  opinion,  which  is  nothing  but 
the  aggregate  of  the  sentiments  of  individuals,  often  limits,  happily  for 
mankind,  the  assumed  omnipotence  of  legislation.  They  are  framed 
in  one  element,  they  are  executed  in  another ;  they  must  live  in  a  dif- 
ferent atmosphere  from  that  in  which  they  are  born. 


192  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

But  admitting  that  the  efforts  of  zeal  and  the  vigilance  of  government 
supply  this  defect,  and  secure  the  punishment  of  those  who  transgress 
these  laws,  it  deserves  to  be  considered  in  what  manner  their  punish- 
ment will  impress  the  public.  With  what  feelings  will  they  contem- 
plate the  ruin  or  imprisonment  of  virtuous  men  for  the  exercise  of  what 
they  esteem  the  rights  of  conscience !  Will  the  condign  punishment 
of  their  countrymen,  not  for  disturbing  the  public  peace  or  for  the  vio- 
lation of  property,  but  for  a  well-meant  endeavour  to  diffuse  the  prin- 
ciples of  piety  and  the  blessings  of  religion,  augment  their  reverence 
for  the  laws  ?  or  rather  will  it  not  produce  in  some  an  indignation 
against  such  flagrant  injustice,  in  others  confuse  the  distinction  of  right 
and  wrong?  When  they  see  atrocious  crimes  and  eminent  virtues 
pursued  and  punished  with  the  same  severity,  it  must  tend  to  destroy 
all  respect  for  legislation.  They  will  be  no  longer  solicitous  to  mani- 
fest their  innocence,  but  to  secure  their  impunity  ;  and  to  the  honour  of 
obeying  Avill  succeed  that  of  evading  the  laws.  Nor  is  this  all.  In 
the  detection  of  these  artificial  crimes  the  assistance  of  the  profligate 
and  abandoned  alone  can  be  expected,  which  will  complete  the  triumph 
of  wickedness  over  piety  and  innocence.  To  the  alliance  between 
church  and  state  we  are  already  familiarized ;  but  an  alliance,  under 
pretence  of  securing  the  church,  between  the  ministers  of  religion  and 
a  detestable  spawn  of  spies  and  informers  will  appear  surprising ;  nor 
is  it  difficult  to  foresee  what  ideas  it  will  impress  of  that  religion  which 
stands  in  need  of  such  aid,  or  of  those  ministers  who  stoop  to  employ 
it.  Until  by  some  strange  revolution  all  the  traces  of  genuine  Chris- 
tianity and  all  the  history  of  its  propagation  are  effaced  from  the  mind, 
it  will  be  impossible  for  men  to  mistake  this  for  the  religion  of  Jesus, — 
a  religion  which  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  sufferings,  and  whose  only 
weapon  is  love.  In  such  proceedings  they  will  -look  for  the  marks 
and  signs  of  the  true  church,  and  instead  of  the  successors  of  the 
apostles,  they  will  imagine  they  behold  a  Jewish  sanhedrim  solemnly 
commanding  the  illiterate  disciples  of  Jesus  to  "  teach  no  more  in 
that  name." 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  a  similar  reply  will  be  made  to  that  of 
the  apostles  on  a  similar  occasion,  "  Whether  it  be  right  to  obey  God 
or  man,  judge  ye."  Under  a  full  conviction  that  they  are  in  the  path 
of  duty,  and  promoting  the  eternal  happiness  of  mankind,  it  is  not  easy 
to  see  how  they  can  desist.  Whatever  political  superiors  may  imagine, 
he  who  conceives  himself  implicated  in  the  command  to  "  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature"  will  find  it  morally  impossible  to  yield  active 
obedience  to  any  contrary  command.  "  We  cannot,"  saith  the  apostle, 
"  but  speak  the  things  which  we  have  heard  and  seen." 

To  nominal  Christians,  who  may  rather  be  said  to  comply  with  the 
religion  of  their  country  than  to  believe  it,  on  such  a  subject  it  is  in 
vain  to  appeal ;  hut  they  who  are  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
eternal  things,  and  know  "  the  gospel  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,"  will  feel  no  hesitation  how  to  determine  in  this  case. 

In  perfect  consistency  with  a  cheerful  submission  to  the  civil  au- 
thority of  their  superiors,  they  will  consider  it  a  duty  resulting  from 


ON  TOLERATION.  I93 

their  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ  to  persist  in  their  endeavours  to  convert 
mankind. 

That  coercive  measures  will  tend  to  ferment  a  spirit  of  division  in 
the  kingdom  can  admit  of  little  doubt.  Many,  it  may  be  reasonably 
expected,  will  feel  a  generous  concern  for  the  oppressed,  though  they 
may  ridicule  the  cause  in  which  they  suffer ;  while  men  of  enlarged 
minds,  and  wlio  are  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  love  of  liberty,  will 
perceive  in  any  one  act  of  oppression,  however  insulated,  a  precedent 
most  dangerous  to  freedom.  The  mischief  in  itself  may  appear  little, 
and  the  merit  of  the  sufferers  inconsiderable  in  their  eyes ;  but  they 
will  consider  it  as  an  experiment  on  the  public  mind,  calculated  to  pre- ' 
pare  them  for  other  acts  of  oppression  ;  they  will  consider  every  thing 
as  alarming  that  impairs  the  integrity  of  freedom,  from  a  conviction 
that  a  vessel  may  be  sunk  by  the  smallest  leak. 

Thus  two  formidable  parties  will  probably  be  produced  in  the  king- 
dom, inflamed  with  mutual  animosity  and  suspicion.  Of  the  parliament 
which  assembled  in  the  year  1640,  on  the  eve  of  those  commotions 
which  afterward  broke  out  into  a  civil  war  and  issued  in  such  fatal 
extremities,  the  puritans  formed  but  a  small  part.  The  majority  of  the 
number  consisted  of  persons  attached  to  the  established  church,  but 
who  felt  indignant  at  the  oppression*  of  the  puritans  and  the  cruelties 
of  Laud.  Their  attachment  to  liberty  taught  them  to  identify  them- 
selves with  the  sufferers,  and  to  discover  in  the  severities  of  the  Star- 
chamber  and  the  High-commission  Court  an  exertion  of  an  arbitrary 
power  utterly  incompatible  with  the  security  of  a  free  people. 

Although  many  causes,  it  must  be  confessed,  contributed  to  the  ruin 
of  the  unfortunate  Charles,  no  single  one  had  so  much  influence  as  that 
religious  intolerance  which  was  so  unhappy  a  feature  in  his  character ; 
as,  on  the  other  hand,  nothing  contributed  so  much  to  support  the  pre- 
carious authority  of  Cromwell,  and  to  produce  an  artificial  calm  in  the 
midst  of  so  many  raging  factions,  so  many  stormy  elements,  as  a  general 
liberty  of  conscience.  This,  as  is  remarked  by  the  celebrated  Bishop 
of  Meaux,  was  the  great  secret  of  hie  policy. 

The  policy  of  Charles,  instead  of  making  him  regarded  as  the  com- 
mon father  of  his  subjects  and  the  guardian  of  their  welfare,  providing 
for  the  happiness  of  every  part  with  parental  care  and  impartial  solici- 
tude, made  him  to  become  the  head  of  a  party  while  he  lent  himself 
as  the  instrument  of  gratifying  its  mean  and  sanguinary  passions ;  by 
which  means  he  became  the  idol  of  a  faction,  but  lost  the  hearts  of  his 
people.  The  policy  of  Cromwell  mitigated  resentment,  conciliated 
prejudice,  and  made  those  acquiesce  in  his  pretensions  and  concur  to 
maintain  his  authority  who  agreed  in  nothing  else.  How  precious  must 
that  liberty  of  conscience  be,  and  how  fearful  the  resentment  of  its 
loss,  which  could  prompt  a  great  people  to  suffer  their  native  prince  to 
wander  in  exile  and  subsist  on  the  alms  of  rival  courts  ;  and  reconcile 
them  to  the  yoke  of  a  master  whose  power  was  not  supported  by  the 
smallest  shadow  of  justice !  If  such  effects  followed  from  invading 
liberty  of  conscience  at  a  time  when  its  right  had  never  been  ascer- 

*  Clarendon,  vol.  i.  p.  184. 

Vol.  II.— N 


294  FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING. 

tained,  what  may  we  not  apprehend  from  its  violation  after  an  uninter- 
rupted possession  of  it  for  a  hundred  years  ? — when  it  has  become 
familiar  to  our  laws,  habits,  and  manners,  and  the  apprehension  of  its 
danger  has  been  succeeded  by  an  experience  of  its  advantages.  What 
will  be  the  ultimate  issue,  should  Providence  in  its  infinite  wisdom  suffer 
our  adversaries  to  prevail  and  the  cruelties  of  persecution  to  be  renewed, 
it  belongs  not  to  me  to  conjecture :  but  it  may  be  granted  me  to  express 
my  humble  hope  we  shall  stand  firm  in  the  day  of  trial, — not  forgetting 
that  persecution  and  sufferings  have  been  the  lot  of  the  most  emifl«nt 
of  God's  servants ;  that  in  walking  in  this  path  we  are  encompassed 
with  "  a  cloud  of  witnesses  ;"  with  apostles,  prophets,  and  evangelists, 
whose  words  will  teach,  whose  examples  will  encourage  us  to  ad€>rn 
that  cause  by  our  sufferings  which  we  are 'no  longer  permuted  to  aid 
by  our  exertions. 

Having  executed  to  the  best  of  my  ability  the  plan  I  proposed,  my 
freedom,  I  trust,  will  he  pardoned  if  I  suggest  a  few  hints  of  advice  to 
those  who  are  employed  in  disseminating  the  knowledge  of  Christianity 
in  villages. 

1.  To  abstain  from  political  reflection  and  from  censuring  either  the 
constitution  of  the  church  or  the  clergy,  is  a  part  of  prudence  on  which 
I  ever  would  hope  it  is  needless  to  insist. 

2.  Though  I  am  convinced  that  those  who  attempt  to  evangelize  the 
poor  do  not  fail  to  inculcate  the  morality  of  the  gospel,  it  may  yet  be 
doubted  whether  this  is  done  with  sufficient  distinctness  and  detail. 
A  notion  prevails  among  some  that  to  preach  the  gospel  includes  nothing 
more  than  a  recital  or  recapitulation  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity. If  these  are  firmly  believed  and  zealously  embraced,  they  are 
ready  to  suppose  the  work  is  done,  and  that  all  the  virtues  of  the 
Christian  character  will  follow  by  necessary  consequence.  Hence 
they  satisfy  themselves  with  recommending  holiness  in  general  terms, 
without  entering  into  its  particular  duties ;  and  this  in  such  a  manner 
as  rather  to  predict  it  as  the  result  of  certain  opinions  than  to  enforce 
it  on  the  ground  of  moral  obligation,  which  tends  to  disjoin  faith  and 
virtue  by  turning  all  the  solicitude  of  men  to  the  former,  while  the 
latter  is  left  to  provide  for  itself,  and  to  make  them  substitute  the 
agitation  of  the  passions  and  the  adoption  of  a  speculative  creed  in 
the  room  of  that  renovation  of  heart  and  life  which  the  Scriptures 
render  necessary. 

Some  apology,  it  is  true,  ought  to  be  made  for  those  who  have  leaned 
to  this  extreme  from  the  circumstances  in  which  they  have  been  placed. 
Having  been  called  to  preach  to  people  who  were  ignorant  of  the  very 
first  truths  of  religion,  they  have  supposed  it  necessary  to  employ  them- 
selves in  laying  the  foundation.  On  the  supposition  we  were  to  address 
an  audience  that  was  not  acquainted  with  the  primary  doctrines,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  begin  with  relating  the  facts  and  teaching  the 
doctrines  which  are  the  basis  of  the  Christian  dispensation.  The 
credenda,  or  things  to  be  believed,  must  necessarily  precede  i\\e  facienda, 
ox  things  to  be  done.     But  though  things  must  proceed  in  this  order, 


FRAGMENT  ON  VILLAGE  PREACHING.  195 

no  durable  separation  should  be  made  of  tlie  doctrines  from  the  duties 
of  Cliristianity,  lest  the  people  should  acquire  a  corrupt  taste,  and, 
satisfied  with  their  first  attainments  and  impressions,  neglect  to  culti- 
vate that  "  holiness  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord."  When 
they  have  been  long  detained  in  the  elementary-  doctrines,  they  arje  not 
unfrequently  found  to  acquire  a  distaste  for  the  practical  parts  of  Scrip- 
ture,— an  impatience  of  reproof, — a  dislike,  in  short,  of  every  thing 
but  what  flatters  them  with  a  favourable  opinion  of  their  character  and 
their  state.  Proud,  bigoted,  disputatious,  careless  of  virtue,  tenacious 
of  subtleties,  tlieir  religion  evaporates  in  opinion,  and  their  supposed 
conversion  is  nothing  more  than  an  exchange  of  the  vices  of  the  brute 
for  those  of  the  speculator  in  theological  difficulties. 

The  best  method  of  preventing  this  fatal  abuse  of  evangelical  doctrine 
is  to  inculcate  in  immediate  connexion  whh  it  those  virtues  of  theChris- 
tian  character  by  which  faith  must  be  tried,  frequently,  distinctly,  and 
fully.  Instead  of  recommending  practical  religion  only  in  general  terms, 
under  the  phrase  of  holiness  or  any  other,  let  us,  in  imitation  of  inspired 
preachers,  explain  in  what  that  holiness  consists.  When  John  came 
preaching  "  repentance  because  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  was  at  hand," 
he  did  not  satisfy  himself  Avith  barren  and  general  abstractions :  in 
reply  to  the  inquiries  of  those  who  asked  him  what  they  must  do,  he 
entered  into  details,  he  imparted  specific  advice,  and  enjoined  specific 
duties  corresponding  to  the  different  conditions  of  men  and  their  rela- 
tion to  each  other  in  society.  Had  he  contented  himself  with  merely 
reiterating  the  command  to  repent  in  general  terms,  as,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
is  too  often  the  case,  his  hearers  might  have  mistaken  a  transient  com- 
punction, a  vague  sensation  of  uneasiness,  for  the  duty  demanded  :  but 
by  that  particularity  of  application  he  adopted,  the  conscience  was 
informed  and  the  necessity  perceived  of  "  bringing  forth  fruits  meet  for 
repentance." 

The  conscience  is  not  likely  to  be  touched  by  general  declamations 
on  the  evil  of  sin  and  the  beauty  of  holiness  without  delineation  of 
character :  they  may  alarm  at  first,  but  after  a  while,  if  they  be  often 
asserted  merely  as  general  truths  which  involve  the  whole  human  race, 
they  will  supply  no  materials  for  self-examination  or  painful  retrospect. 
They  will  in  process  of  time  be  regarded  as  doctrinal  points,  and  pass 
from  the  conscience  into  the  creed.  He  must  know  little  of  human 
nature  who  perceives  not  the  callousness  of  the  human  heart,  and  the 
perfect  indifference  with  which  it  caii  contemplate  the  most  alarming 
truths  when  they  are  presented  in  a  general  abstract  form.  It  is  not 
in  this  way  that  religious  instruction  can  be  made  permanently  inter- 
esting. It  is  when  particular  vices  are  displayed  as  they  appear  in 
real  life,  when  the  arts  of  self-deception  are  detected,  and  the  vain 
excuses  by  which  the  sinner  palliates  his  guilt,  evades  the  conviction 
of  conscience,  and  secures  a  delusive  tranquillity — in  a  word,  it  is  when 
the  heart  is  forced  to  see  in  itself  the  original  of  what  is  described  by 
the  apostle,  and,  perceiving  that  "  the  secrets  of  his  heart  are  made 
manifest,  he  falls  down  and  confesses  that  God  is  among  us  of  a  truth." 
The  reproof  which  awakened  David  from  his  guilty  slumber,  and  made 

N2 


196  FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP. 

him  weep  and  tremble,  turned,  not  on  the  general  evil  of  sin,  but  on  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  aggravation  attending  that  which  he  had 
committed.  The  sermon  of  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  which  pro- 
duced such  decisive  effects,  was  not  a  general  declamation  on  the  evil 
of  sin,  but  it  contained  a  specific  charge  against  his  hearers  of  having 
rejected  and  crucified  their  Messiah.  When  Paul  was  called  before 
Felix,  being  well  acquainted  with  his  character  he  adapted  his  discourse 
accordingly,  and  "  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judg- 
ment to  come,"  until  "  Felix  trembled."  The  delineations  of  character 
and  the  injunctions  of  Scripture  on  practical  points  are  not  couched  in 
general  terms  ;  they  are  diversified  and  particular  ;  nor  can  it  justly  be 
doubted  that  the  more  of  individuality,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expres- 
sion, our  pictures  of  human  nature  possess,  the  more  impressive  will 
they  become.  It  is  in  this  department  of  public  instruction  there  is  scope 
for  endless  variety — for  the  highest  exertions  of  intellect,  and  the  richest 
stores  of  knowledge. 

The  doctrines  of  Christianity,  though  of  infinite  importance,  are  yet 
few  and  simple,  capable  of  few  combinations,  and  of  little  variety  of 
illustration ;  too  precise  to  leave  any  thing  for  the  understanding  to 
invent ;  too  awful  to  permit  the  imagination  to  embellish.  It  is  not  in 
the  statement  of  Christian  doctrines,  considered  in  themselves,  that 
experience,  talents,  and  knowledge  find  scope  for  their  exertion. 


ON   THE    RIGHT    OF    WORSHIP.' 

Worship  consists  in  the  performance  of  all  those  external  acts, 
and  the  observance  of  all  those  rites  and  ceremonies,  in  which  men 
engage  with  the  professed  and  sole  view  of  honouring  God.  It  is 
consequently  in  a  pre-eminent  manner  the  concern  of  conscience  ;  for, 
as  God  is  the  supreme  master  and  legislator,  it  is  impossible  for  a 
conscientious  man,  in  compliance  with  human  injunctions,  either  to 
omit  any  part  of  that  worship  which  he  apprehends  God  to  require,  or 
to  perform  any  which  he  has  forbidden.  In  worship  the  creature  has 
to  do  only  with  his  Creator.  There  are,  unquestionably,  some  regards 
due  to  God,  some  expressions  of  pur  reverence  to  him  and  our  depend- 
ence upon  him,  which  it  is  our  duty  to  render  ;  and  the  duties  which 
have  God  immediately  for  their  object  must  be  in  their  obligation 
paramount  to  every  other ;  that  is,  such  that  the  commands  of  no 
human  superior  can  discharge  us  from  it.  It  remains  only  to  be  consid- 
ered by  what  criterion  these  duties  are  to  be  ascertained. 

Among  the  different  modes  of  worship  Avhich  prevail  in  different 
countries,  and  in  the  same  country,  to  what  standard  are  we  to  appeal  ? 
by  what  principle  is  the  solution  to  be  made  1  Either  the  mere  will 
of  the  magistrate  or  the  conscience  of  the  individual  must  decide  in 

•  This  appears  to  have  beea  written  in  1811 ;  the  preceding  twenty-three  pages  in  1801  ana  1802. 


FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP.  197 

this  case.  I  say  the  mere  will,  because  if  the  promulgation  of  his 
will  be  enforced  by  arguments  and  reasons,  these  arguments  are 
necessarily  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  subject ;  and  consequently, 
as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  he  is  still  left  to  his  conscience.  But 
if  such  a  power  as  this  be  vested  in  the  magistrate,  it  is  highly  ne- 
cessary to  examine  the  consequences  to  which  it  will  lead.  It  will 
legitimate  all  the  persecutions  which  the  heathen  emperors  inflicted  on 
the  primitive  Christians,  as  well  as  the  more  recent  popish  cruelties. 
For  from  what  principle  did  those  persecutions  flow,  but  that  the 
magistrate  possessed  a  right  to  determine  and  prescribe  the  religion 
of  his  subjects,  and  that  a  refusal  to  comply  with  his  authority  involved 
political  guilt?  The  jusf  pretensions  of  magistracy  in  this  respect 
are  surely  equal ;  nor  can  any  reason  be  assigned  for  denying  that 
authority  to  heathen  or  popish  princes  within  their  dominions  which 
will  not  equally  apply  to  Protestant  princes. 

The  dominion  of  God  over  his  creatures  is  original,  inalienable,  and 
supreme  ;  so  that  men  must  be  contemplated  as  the  subjects  of  God, 
before  we  consider  them  as  members  of  a  civil  community.  The 
formation  of  states  and  the  enaction  of  laws  are  operations  which 
regard  man  in  his  transient  and  local  situation  as  the  inhabitant  of  the 
present  world.  There  is,  on  the  principles  of  Theism,  above  and  beyond 
these,  an  original  and  fundamental  moral  law  which  unites  him  to  his 
Maker,  and  obliges  him  to  fear,  serve,  and  obey  him  as  his  superior 
Lord.  That  this  law  is  more  original  and  comprehensive  than  any 
other  is  evident  from  this  consideration,  that  it  comprehends  sovereign 
as  well  as  subjects ;  that  it  regards  men  in  those  invariable,  essential 
qualities  in  which  they  all  agree  ;  and  that  it  can  never  be  suspended 
by  time  or  change. 

As  men  are  the  creatures  of  God  originally  and  essentially,  and 
continually  accountable  to  him,  whatever  laws  are  established  for  the 
government  of  particular  societies- are  hi  the  nature  of  by-laws,  with 
relation  to  the  duties  which  intelligent  creatures  owe  to  God ;  and 
whenever  civil  magistrates  interfere  with  these,  they  are  guilty  of  the 
same  absurdity  as  a  particular  corporation  would  be  who  formed 
municipal  regulations  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  the  land.  No 
particular  society  has  a  right  to  make  rules  for  its  regulation  which 
interfere  with  the  general  laws  of  that  kingdom  of  which  it  is  a  part ; 
for  this  would  be  to  introducp  an  imprrivni  in  impprio,  a  multitude 
of  legislatures,  and  a  confusion  and  uncertainty  in  the  prmciples  of 
justice. 

In  like  manner,  no  human  power  can  justly  make  laws  which  shall 
interfere  with  those  duties  which  are  previously  due  to  God.  As  a 
necessary  consequence  of  this,  it  follows,  that  whatever  right  men 
possess  to  worship  God  after  the  dictates  of  conscience,  in  a  state  of 
nature,  is  not  diminished  or  impaired  by  entering  into  society.  If 
seditious  purposes  be  concealed  under  the  pretext  of  assembling  for 
religious  worship,  let  the  severest  laws  be  enacted  for  their  punish- 
ment. Let  the  claims  of  liberty  of  conscience  be  permitted  as  a  cover 
for  nothing  which  does  not  belong  to  it. 


198  FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP. 

There  is  less  reason,  however,  for  entertaining  any  alarm  on  this 
head  in  tolerating  %vorshipping  assemblies  than  any  other ;  for  they 
are  always  public.  They  invite  inspection.  Who  would  be  so  in- 
fatuated as  to  attempt  to  connect  treasonable  or  seditious  designs  with 
assemblies  which  are  open  to  every  one,  and  whose  time  and  place 
of  meeting  are  universally  known  1  Besides,  the  very  business  of 
worship  is  at  the  greatest  distance  possible  from  every  thing  tending 
to  inflame  political  passions.  Directed  to  a  spiritual  and  invisible 
Being,  it  withdraws  the  mind  from  the  world,  and  turns  the  thoughts 
into  a  channel  the  most  remote  from  those  affections  which  disturb  the 
repose  of  society. 

It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  those  exercises  which  have  the  most 
direct  influence  in  tranquillizing  the  heart,  and  reducing  all  earthly 
things  to  comparative  insignificance,  must  be  forbidden,  from  an 
apprehension  of  their  becoming  engines  of  insurrection  and  tumult. 
They  cannot  be  perverted  in  the  smallest  degree  to  this  purpose 
without  their  danger  being  perceived ;  and  it  will  then  be  soon  enough 
to  apply  remedies. 

This  reasoning  does  not  apply  against  the  magistrate  selecting  some 
one  particular  sect,  or  some  one  set  of  religious  opinions,  and  bringing 
them  under  his  exclusive  patronage  and  encouragement ;  in  other 
words,  the  erection  of  a  religious  establishment.  Whatever  the 
advantages  or  inconveniences  may  be  which  result  from  religious 
establishments  is  foreign  to  the  subject  in  hand,  which  regards  only 
the  free  and  full  toleration  of  different  sects,  as  long  as  they  contam 
themselves  within  the  limits  of  civil  submission. 

It  will  be  alleged,  that  on  these  principles  a  multitude  of  ignorant 
enthusiasts  and  wild  fanatics  will  start  up,  and  under  the  pretence  of 
preaching  the  gospel,  bring  religion  into  contempt,  and  thence  eventu- 
ally open  a  door  for  profaneness  and  impiety.  That  this  may  in  some 
instances  be  the  consequence  of  unlimited  toleration  of  Christian 
worship  cannot  perhaps  be  denied ;  as  little  can  it  be  denied  that  this 
is  a  great  evil.  It  is  much  to  be  l^mented  that  any  should  engage  in 
the  functions  of  a  Christian  minister  who,  in  addition  to  an  unblemished 
character,  is  not  possessed  of  a  competent  measure  of  ability.  But 
this  inconvenience  may  be  only  one  instance,  among  an  infinity  of 
others,  of  a  partial  evil  connected  with  a  principle  productive  of  the 
greatest  good. 

Pure  and  unmixed  good  is  not  the  portion  of  earth.  We  cannot 
specify  a  single  law  in  the  natural  or  moral  world,  which  falls  within 
the  sphere  of  our  observation,  which  is  not  productive  (along  with 
permanent  good)  of  occasional  evils.  This  mixture  of  partial  evil 
with  the  source  of  general  happiness  seems  to  be  an  essential  part 
of  the  imperfections  of  the  present  state.  If  the  magistrate  is  invested 
with  the  power  of  suppressing  all  whom  he  thinks  incompetent  to  the 
office  of  a  preacher,  there  can  he  no  liberty  and  no  tranquillity.  But 
it  is  surely  of  more  consequence  to  a  state  to  preserve  the  most 
valuable  portion  of  its  liberty,  than  to  preserve  a  perfect  exemption  from 
fanaticism.     The  care  of  the  former  falls  within  the  proper  province 


FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP.  199 

of  a  magistrate.'  The  latter  is  consistent  with  a  high  degree  of  national 
prosperity.  Religious  enthusiasm  becomes  dangerous  to  a  state  only 
when  it  is  the  subject  of  oppression.  There  is  in  it  an  elastic  quality 
which  repels  rigorous  coercion.  The  vivid  impressions  of  religious 
objects  which  it  includes  rather  tend  to  sink  the  value  of  all  earthly 
interests,  to  annihilate  the  world  and  all  its  concerns,  and  to  produce 
a  conduct  which,  though  it  may  be  wild  and  incoherent,  yet  if  left  to 
itself  will  be  mild,  inoffensive,  and  benevolent.  Besides,  enthusiasm, 
consisting  in  a  preternatural  state  of  exaltation,  has  a  strong  tendency 
to  subside  in  a  short  time,  and  with  the  increase  of  knowledge  to 
purify  itself  until  it  settles  into  calm  enlightened  piety.  It  is  not,  like 
superstition,  a  permanent  evil.  The  enthusiast  is  impatient  of  control 
in  his  religious  concerns,  but  does  not  aspire  after  dominion.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  passions  are  strongly  possessed  by  invisible  objects,  the 
interests  of  the  present  state  lose  their  ascendency,  and  the  enraptured 
enthusiast  is  more  in  danger  of  becoming  indolent  than  factious.  The 
most  effectual  way  of  transporting  such  characters  into  political  ex- 
cesses is  to  inflame  them  by  oppression, — when  they  naturally  learn 
to  consider  their  enemies  as  the  enemies  of  God,  and  throw  the  whole 
weight  of  their  religious  prejudices  and  passions  into  the  scale  of 
political  opposition ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  complete  toleration 
is  the  most  effectual  remedy  for  their  intemperance ;  leavuig  them 
leisure  to  reflect,  and  affording  room  for  the  ordinary  motives  and 
principles  of  life  to  resume  their  ascendency. 

In  the  history  of  those  sects  which  have  been  the  most  justly 
branded  with  enthusiasm,  we  shall  uniformly  find  that  while  they  were 
exasperated  by  persecution  they  were  fierce  and  wild,  and  their 
fanaticism  continued  unsubdued  ;  but  no  sooner  were  they  left  unmo- 
lested than  those  features  in  their  character  Avhich  excited  alarm 
gradually  wore  off,  and  they  ceased  to  be  formidable. 

The  history  of  the  Baptists  who  rose,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in 
Germany,  and  of  the  Quakers  in  England,  confirm  the  truth  of  this 
remark. 

Though  the  tyrannical  measures  pursued  by  Charles  the  First,  at 
the  beginning  of  his  reign,  naturally  excited  alarm  and  awoke  opposi- 
tion, it  seems  evident  the  civil  war  could  never  have  been  kindled  but 
for  the  intolerable  cruelties  inflicted  by  Laud  on  nonconformists,  which 
cemented  the  various  sects,  and  made  them  unite  in  a  vehement  oppo- 
sition to  the  government  of  Charles,  while  their  tenets  were  too  dis- 
cordant to  permit  them  to  unite  in  any  thing  else.  The  magnitude  of 
eternal  interests  and  the  mighty  force  of  religious  passions  were 
superadded  to  the  causes  already  existing  of  political  contention,  and 
by  their  union  kindled  those  flames  of  war  which  consumed  the  land. 
Cromwell,  on  the  other  hand,  whose  usurpation  was  supported  By  no 
law,  and  who  had  to  contend  with  the  whole  weight  of  virtuous  pre- 
judice in  favour  of  the  constitution  he  had  overturned,  and  the  family 
he  had  expelled,  practised  an  opposite  policy,  and  contrived  to  retain 
in  subjection  three  kingdoms,  by  granting  to  the  rival  sects  a  general 
toleration,  and  balancing  their  power  against  each  other.     The  impor- 


200  FRAGMENT  OX  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP. 

taiioe  of  this  expedient  in  the  preservation  of  his  power  has  been  ac- 
knowledged, both  in  Enghind  and  on  tlie  continent,  by  the  most  invete- 
rate enemies  of  that  extraordinary  man.  The  eloquent  Bishop  of 
Meaux,  in  his  funeral  oration  for  Henrietta  of  France,  ascribes  his 
success  principally  to  this  measure  of  his  administration.  Since  the 
revolution,  at  which  a  universal  religious  toleration  took  place,  amid 
all  our  calamities  and  reverses,  an  miexampled  duration  of  domestic 
peace  has  been  enjoyed,  with  two  xeiy  short  interruptions  from  occa- 
sions foreign  from  the  topic  under  present  consideration ;  and  during 
this  protracted  period,  the  mild  spirit  of  legislation  has  coimnunicated 
itself  to  all  sects,  imd  in  a  very  eminent  degree  mitigated  the  acrimony 
of  religious  zeal. 

A  species  of  religions  fanaticism,  it  is  confessed,  made  its  appear- 
ance in  tine  sixteenth  century  in  Germany,  and  in  tlie  next  centiny  in 
England,  which  was  of  a  highly  political  complexion,  and  struck 
immediately  at  ilie  root  of  civil  power,  the  distinctions  of  rank,  and 
the  offices  of  magistracy  ;  but  even  the  history  of  the  Baptists  in 
Germany,  and  of  the  Fifth-monarchy  meii,  supply  reasons  for  tolera- 
tion, since  we  see  that  the  obnoxious  tenets  which  distinguished  them 
soon  disappeared,  imd  that  mider  milder  treatment  their  successors 
have  retained  only  some  peculiarities  of  the  most  harmless  kind.  The 
extravagant  tlights  of  fanaticism,  its  visionary  spirit,  wliich  might 
tempt  its  possessors  to  trample  'upon  the  rules  of  society,  can  never 
last  long  or  extend  far :  for  the  principles  of  self-preservation,  the 
physical  wants  of  the  lower  orders  especially,  who  are  most  obnoxious 
to  such  impressions,  the  spirit  of  imitation,  the  habit'  of  submission 
to  superiors,  together  with  the  ordinary  occupations  of  lite,  are  prin- 
ciples of  perpetual  operation,  the  inriuence  of  wliich  will  soon  sur- 
mount the  strongest  feelings,  which  operate  only  occasionally  and  by 
starts,  and  will  consequently  force  the  mind  back  into  its  proper  ele- 
ment. For  the  same  reasons  it  can  never  extend  far.  Minds  only  of 
a  peculiar  texture  will  feel  its  impression.  A  vast  majority  of  every 
community  will  be  too  wise,  too  busy,  too  sensual,  or  too  phlegmatic,  to 
be  transported  into  diuigerous  excesses  by  causes  which  operate  on  the 
imagination,  and  wliich  have  no  relation  to  the  more  ordinary  sources 
of  pain  and  pleasure.  No  fanaticism  of  this  kind  has  made  its  appear- 
ance at  present,  nor  is  there  any  room  to  presume  it  will.  Some 
degree  of  enthusiasm,  perhaps,  generally  accompanies  religious  im- 
pressions in  uncultivated  minds,  at  their  commencement.  Enthusiasm 
may  be  defined,  that  religious  state  of  mind  in  which  the  imagination 
is  miduly  heated,  and  the  passions  outrun  the  understanding.  But 
when  persons  are  first  deeply  impressed  with  the  infinitely  momentous 
concerns  of  a  future  life,  and  are  thereby  uitroduced,  as  h  were,  into  a 
new  world,  it  is  too  much  to  expect  their  religious  afiectious  shall  be 
perfectly  regulated,  or  their  conduct,  imder  circumstances  so  novel,  be 
consistent  with  the  exactest  rules  of  propriety.  New  situations, 
whether  resulting  from  a  moral  and  internal  change,  or  from  outward 
circumstances,  make  it  necessary  for  some  time  to  pass  before  those 
who  are  led  into  them  know  perfectly  how  to  adjust  their  beha\aour  to 


FRAGMENT  OX  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP.  201 

them.  But  if  the  profession  of  piety  be  sincere  fand  of  hv-pocrisy  we 
are  not  at  present  speaking),  it  will  eventually  secure,  tocrether  with 
the  essential  moral  virtues,  a  regard  to  decorum  and  to  all  the  minuter 
properties  of  social  intercourse.  In  the  mean  time,  where  the  love  of 
God  and  man  predominates,  h  will  ill  become  the  governor  of  a  Chris- 
tian country,  and  still  less  the  governor  of  a  Christian  church,  to  suffer 
himself  to  be  so  much  offended  at  the  intemperate  effusions  of  honest 
zeal  as  to  disregard  the  substance  of  religion  because  it  may  be  defi- 
cient in  some  of  its  more  amiable  appendages. 

If  we  adopt  the  maxims  of  a  profane  and  careless  world,  we  shall 
be  taught  to  look  upon  all  zealous  Christians  as  enthusiasts  or  h\*po- 
crites  ;  for  when  have  they  not,  by  a  majority  of  mankind,  been  repre- 
sented in  that  light  ?  To  men  of  the  world  it  appears  so  strange 
that  men  should  be  affected  by  the  consideration  of  invisible  realities 
in  any  degree  proportioned  lo  the  influence  of  present  objects,  it  is  so 
utterly  remote  from  all  their  practical  estimates,  that  they  have  no 
means  of  accounting  for  it  without  imputing  it  to  a  partial  insanity  or 
deliberate  hypocrisy.  But  this  is  only  one  among  numberless  glaring 
inconsistencies  of  human  conduct.  For  these  very  pejsons,  it  is  prob- 
able, have  never  formally  renounced  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  who 
commands  us  to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,"  nor  the  certainty 
of  an  eternal  state,  in  comparison  of  which  the  interests  and  prospects 
of  the  present  are  annihilated ;  and  yet  they  are  surprised  to  find  that 
good  and  evil  should  be  estimated  with  regard  to  their  respective  mag- 
nitude, and  that  any  should  be  weak  enouofh  to  credit  the  declarations 
and  obey  the  precepts  of  our  common  Lord.  Such  is  the  fascination 
of  the  world,  and  so  complete  its  triumph  in  effecting  a  total  divorce 
of  the  speculations  from  the  practical  belief  of  professed  Christians.  If 
the  truths  which  religion  reveals,  and  the  hopes  it  inspires,  respect  an 
infinite  good,  and  the  present  life  be,  as  we  know  by  experience,  short 
and  transitory,  it  must  be  the  truest  wisdom  to  be  deeply  solicitous  to 
attain  that  good,  and  to  be  disposed  to  make  any  sacrifice  of  present 
pleasure  and  convenience  with  a  view  to  it ;  and  when  this  is  the 
habitual  state  of  the  mind,  it  will  imprint  some  traces  of  itself  in  the 
external  deportment,  which  the  irreligious  part  of  mankind  will  be  sure 
to  brand  with  the  name  of  hypocrisy  or  fanaticism. 

The  primitive  Christians  encountered  this  reproach,  and  their  suc- 
cessors must  expect  it  in  proportion  as  they  tread  in  their  steps.  That 
world  to  which  we  are  hastening  will  determine  who  are  justlv 
chargeable  with  folly, — they  who  treat  eternal  things  according  to 
their  true  nature,  who,  making  the  senice  of  God  their  supreme  con- 
cern, pass  the  time  of  their  sojourning  here  in  fear ;  or  they,  the  lan- 
guage of  whose  conduct  is,  "let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow 
we  die." 

To  suppose  that  that  religious  state  of  mind  in  which  devout  affec- 
tions are  highly  [raised]*  is  enthusiastic,  is  a  most  pernicious  mistake, 
and  would  in  its  consequences  utterly  extirpate  religion,  and  expunge 

*  Whenever  a  word  is  placed  thus  between  brackets,  it  is  snppUed  coDJecamliy,  tlie  manuaerlpt 
being  illegible. — Ed. 


202  FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP. 

a  great  part  of  the  Scriptures.  The  smallest  acquaintance  with  the 
New  Testament  must  convince  every  one  that  the  apostles  and  primi- 
tive Christians  were  no  strangers  to  the  strongest  religious  emotions. 

We  read  of  a  "joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory,"  of  a  "peace  that 
passeth  all  understanding,"  with  innumerable  other  expressions  of  a 
similar  kind,  which  indicate  strong  and  vehement  emotions  of  mind. 
That  the  great  objects  of  Christianity,  called  eternity,  heaven,  and 
hell,  are  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  justify  vivid  emotions  of  joy,  fear, 
and  love,  is  indisputable,  if  it  be  allowed  we  have  any  relation  to 
them ;  nor  is  it  less  certain  that  religion  could  never  have  any  power- 
ful influence  if  it  did  not  influence  through  the  medium  of  the  aflec- 
tions.  All  objects  which  have  any  permanent  influence  influence  the 
conduct  in  this  way.  We  may  possibly  be  first  set  in  motion  by  their 
supposed  connexion  with  our  interest ;  but  unless  they  draw  to  them- 
selves particular  affections,  the  pursuit  soon  terminates. 

The  cool  calculation  of  interest  operates  only  at  times  ;  we  are 
habitually  borne  forward  in  all  parts  of  our  career  by  specific  aflec- 
tions  and  passions  ;  some  more  simple  and  original,  others  complicated 
and  acquired.  In  men  of  a  vulgar  cast,  the  grosser  appetites, — in  minds 
more  elevated,,  the  passions  of  sympathy,  taste,  ambition,  the  pleasures 
of  imagination, — are  the  springs  of  motion.  The  world  triumphs  over 
its  votaries  by  approaching  them  on  the  side  of  their  passions ;  and 
it  does  not  so  much  deceive  their  reason  as  captivate  their  heart. 

It  is  in  this  way  the  love  of  the  world  must  be  repelled.  As  it  is 
not  chiefly  by  imposing  on  the  understanding,  or  misleading  the  rational 
assent,  that  the  world  triumphs  over  its  votaries,  so  the  mere  inculca- 
tion of  religious  truth  on  the  intellect,  without  forming  deep  and  last- 
ing impressions  on  the  heart,  will  never  be  sufiicient  to  emancipate  us 
from  its  control.  The  difficulties  which  accrue  in  a  religious  career, 
especially  at  its  outset,  are  so  many  and  formidable,  that  unless  we 
are  deeply  interested  as  well  as  convinced,  perseverance  is  impracti- 
cable. In  that  victory  over  the  world  which  is  promised  to  faith,  it  is 
necessary  to  oppose  feeling  to  feeling,  and  pleasure  to  pleasure.  The 
intemperate  attachment  to  sensual  pleasure  must  be  subdued  by  the 
fear  of  punishment ;  the  vain  and  extravagant  hopes  which  present 
scenes  inspire  must  be  effaced  by  hopes  more  solid  and  more  animat- 
ing ;  and  to  wean  us  from  the  breasts  of  earthly,  we  must  be  led  to 
the  breasts  of  spiritual  consolation. 

The  world  amuses,  enchants,  transports  us ;  how  shall  religion 
teach  us  to  triumph  over  it,  if  it  present  nothing  but  speculative  con- 
clusions, and  if  the  views  of  a  rational  self-interest  which  it  displays 
were  not  intimately  associated  with  objects  adapted  to  engage  and  fill 
the  heart  ?  Would  the  primitive  Christians  have  taken  joyfully  the 
spoiling  of  their  goods,  because  they  had  in  heaven  a  more  enduring 
substance  ?  Would  they  not  only  have  felt  calm  and  resolute,  but 
accounted  "  it  all  joy  when  they  suffered  divers  persecutions,"  if  the 
objects  of  eternity  had  not  occupied  a  large  share  of  their  affections  ? 

The  Tamiliar  acknowledgment,  Video  mcliora,  prohoquc  deteriora 
sequor, — the  frequency  with  which  men  act  contrary  to  the  most  mature 


FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP.  203 

convictions  of  reason  and  conscience,  shows  how  inefficacious  is  a 
mere  speculative  conviction  when  opposed  to  inveterate  habits  and 
passions.  What  is  the  defect  here  experienced,  but  a  want  of  the 
correspondent  feehngs  and  impressions  from  which  that  state  of  desire 
resuhs  which  impels  to  virtuous  action  ? 

As  the  objects  of  religion  are  infinite  and  eternal,  if  the  mind  is 
duly  affected  by  them  at  all,  they  have  a  tendency  to  enlarge  and 
propagate  their  correspondent  affections  more  and  more ;  and  will 
probably  tend  ultimately  to  absorb  and  extinguish  all  other  hopes  and 
fears. 

Though  good  men  are  continually  approaching  nearer  and  nearer 
to  this  state,  it  is  neither  possible  nor  desirable  they  should  reach  it 
in  this  life.  The  multitude  of  pains,  difficulties,  and  perplexities  with 
which  they  have  to  encounter  are  continually  drawing  their  attention 
to  present  objects ;  and  the  duties  of  the  present  state  could  not  be 
performed  in  that  exalted  state  of  spirituality.  An  eminent  degree  and 
vigour  of  the  religious  affections,  then,  ought  not  to  be  denominated 
fanaticism,  unless  they  arise  from  wrong  views  of  religion,  or  are  so 
much  indulged  as  to  disqualify  for  the  duties  of  society.  Within  these 
limits,  the  more  elevated  devotional  sentiments  are,  the  more  perfect  is 
the  character,  and  the  more  suited  to  the  destination  of  a  being,  who 
has,  indeed,  an  important  part  to  act  here,  but  who  stands  on  the  con- 
fines of  eternity.  He  may  justly  be  styled  a  fanatic,  who,  under  a 
pretence  of  spirituality,  neglects  the  proper  business  of  life,  or  who, 
from  mistaken  views  of  religion,  elevates  himself  to  an  imaginary 
superiority  to  the  rules  of  virtue  and  morality.  Whatever  other  kind 
of  fanaticism,  real  or  pretended,  [exists,]  seems  not  to  fall,  in  the 
smallest  degree,  under  the  conduct  of  the  civil  magistrate  ;  nor  is  there 
any  danger  of  immorality  being  inculcated  under  any  corruption  of 
the  Christian  doctrine.  Many  religious  systems,  considered  in  their 
theory,  may  seem  to  tend  to  the  encouragement  of  vice  ;  they  may, 
in  their  speculative  consequences,  set  aside  the  obligations  of  virtue ; 
but  the  uncorrupted  dictates  of  conscience,  the  general  sentiments  of 
mankind  respecting  right  and  wrong,  and  the  close  alliance  between 
devotion  and  virtue  will  always  counteract  this  tendency,  so  far  that 
the  same  persons  will  be  more  moral  with  very  erroneous  religious 
opinions  than  without  religion.  A  practical  disregard  to  piety  is  the 
prolific  source  of  vice.  We  shall  find  the  minds  of  every  sect  of 
Christians  who  are  zealous  in  religion  superior  to  those  who  are 
careless  and  profane.  Whatever  tends  to  draw  the  attention  to  God 
and  eternity  tends  to  destroy  the  dominion  of  sin.  Under  the  varied 
forms  of  religious  belief  which  have  prevailed  among  the  dilferent 
parties  of  Christians,  little  variation  has  taken  place  in  the  rule  of 
life.  In  the  first  age  of  Christianity,  the  church  was  accused,  by  the 
malice  of  its  enemies,  of  the  most  shameful  and  unnatural  practices ; 
which  it  disclaimed,  but,  at  the  same  time,  very  injudiciously  insinu- 
ated that  the  Gnostics  were  guilty  of  the  crimes  which  were  alleged : 
but  the  result  of  the  more  calm  and  dispassionate  investigation  of  later 
times  has  been  a  growing  conviction  that  these   surmises  had  no 


204  FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP. 

foundation  in  fact.  The  doctrines  of  our  holy  religion  maybe  wofully 
curtailed  and  corrupted,  and  its  profession  sink  into  formality ;  but  its 
moral  precepts  are  so  plain  and  striking,  and  guarded  by  such  clear  and 
awful  sanctions,  as  to  render  it  impossible  it  can  ever  be  converted  into  an 
active  instrument  of  vice.  Let  the  appeal  be  made  to  facts.  Look 
through  all  the  different  sects  and  parties  into  which  professed  Chris- 
tians are  unhappily  divided.  Where  is  there  one  to  be  found  who  has 
innovated  in  the  rule  of  life,  by  substituting  vice  in  place  of  virtue  ? 
The  fears  entertained  from  this  quarter  must  be  considered  as  chi- 
merical and  unfounded,  until  they  are  confirmed  by  the  evidence  of 
facts.  In  those  districts-  in  which  the  dissenters  and  Methodists  have 
been  most  zealous  and  successful  in  village  preaching,  are  the  morals 
of  the  people  more  corrupted  than  in  other  places  ?  Are  they  distin- 
guished by  a  greater  degree  of  profligacy,  intemperance,  and  de- 
bauchery than  the  inhabitants  of  other  parts  of  the  country  ?  The 
advocates  of  rigorous  measures  will  scarcely  have  the  temerity  to  put 
the  question  iipon  this  issue ;  and  until  they  do,  all  their  pretended 
dread  of  the  growth  of  licentiousness  from  village  preaching  will  be 
considered  as  nothing  but  artifice. 

To  contend  for  the  legal  monopoly  of  religious  instruction,  under 
pretence  of  securing  the  morals  of  the  people,  is  a  similar  kind  of 
policy  with  that  of  the  papists,  who  withhold  the  Scriptures  from  the 
common  people  lest  they  should  be  betrayed  into  heresy.  We  all  per- 
ceive, the  design  of  the  papist  in  this  restriction  is  to  prevent  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  which  would  be  fatal  to  ghostly  dominion.  Is  it  not 
equally  evident  that  the  prohibition  to  instruct  the  populace  in  the 
principles  of  Christianity  originates  in  this  jealousy  of  power  ? 

We  must  at  least  be  permitted  to  express  our  surprise  at  the  pro- 
found sagacity  of  those  who  can  discover  a  design  to  destroy  morality 
by  inculcating  rQligion,  and  a  purpose  of  making  men  vicious  by 
making  them  serious.  Plain  men  must  be  excused  if  they  are  startled 
by  such  refined  and  intricate  paradoxes. 

It  highly  becomes  those  who  are  the  advocates  for  the  interference 
of  government  to  restrain  the  efforts  of  Methodists  and  dissenters  to 
diffuse  the  principles  of  knowledge  and  piety,  to  advert  to  the  conse- 
quences which  must  result. 

■  Those  who  are  conscientious  will  feel  it  their  duty,  in  opposition  to 
the  mandates  of  authority,  to  proceed  patiently,  enduring  whatever 
punishment  the  legislature  may  think  proper  to  inflict.  The  govern- 
ment, irritated  at  their  supposed  criminal  obstinacy,  will  be  tempted  to 
enact  severer  laws  accompanied  with  severer  penalties,  which  the 
truly  conscientious  will  still  think  it  their  duty  to  brave,  imitating  the 
example  of  the  primitive  teachers  of  Christianity,  who  departed  from 
the  presence  of  the  council  "  rejoicing  that  they  were  thought  worthy 
to  suffer  for  the  name  of  Christ."  Thus  Avill  commence  a  struggle 
between  the  ruling  powers  and  the  most  upright  part  of  the  subjects, 
which  shall  first  wear  each  other  out, — the  one  by  infliction,  the  other 
by  endurance  ;  prisons  will  be  crowded,  cruel  punishments  will  become 
familiar,  and  blood  probably  will  be  spilt.     The  nation  will  be  afllicted 


FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP.  205 

with  the  frightful  spectacle  of  innocent  and  exemplary  characters  suf- 
fering the  utmost  vengeance  of  the  law  for  crimes  which  the  sufi'erers 
glory  in  having  committed. 

It  is  an  inherent  and  inseparable  inconvenience  in  persecution  that  it 
knows  not  where  to  stop.  It  only  aims  at  first  to  crush  the  obnoxious 
sect ;  it  meets  with  a  sturdy  resistance  ;  it  then  punishes  the  supposed 
crime  of  obstinacy,  till  at  length  the  original  magnitude  of  the  error  is 
little  thought  of  in  the  solicitude  to  maintain  the  rights  of  authority. 
This  is  illustrated  in  the  letter  of  Pliny  to  Trajan,*  treating  of  the 
persecution  of  Christians.  Their  obstinacy  in  refusing  to  comply  with 
the  mandates  of  supreme  authority  [constituted  the  crime.]  In  other 
penal  laws  a  proportion  is  usually  observed  between  the  crime  and  the 
punishment,  the  evil  and  the  remedy;  but  here  the  pride  of  dictating 
and  imposing  mingles  itself  and  draws  [reasons]  for  severity  even  from 
the  insignificance  of  the  error  and  of  the  persecuted  sect,  which  should 
be  its  protection. 

As  the  power  of  the  community  is  delegated  to  the  magistrate  to 
enable  him  to  punish  such  delinquencies  and  to  avenge  such  injuries 
as  it  would  be  unsafe  to  leave  to  the  resentment  of  the  individual  to 
punish,  the  voice  of  law  should  ever  be  in  harmony  with  the  voice  of 
conscience  and  of  reason.  It  sliould  punish  only  those  actions  which 
are  previously  condemned  in  the  tribunal  of  every  man's  own  breast. 
The  majesty  of  law,  considered  as  an  authoritative  rule  of  action,  can 
only  be  maintained  by  its  agreement  with  the  simple  and  unso- 
phisticated decisions  of  the  mind  respecting  right  and  wrong.  On 
these 'principles  law  is  entitled  to  profound  veneration  as  a  sort  of 
secondary  morality,  or  an  application  of  the  principles  of  virtue  and 
social  order  to  the  real  situation  and  actual  circumstances  of  mankind. 
As  the  civil  magistrate  is  invested  with  a  portion  of  divine  authority 
for  the  government  of  men,  so  wise  legislation  is  a  reservoir  of  moral 
regulation  and  principles,  drawn  from  the  springs  and  fountains  of 
eternal  justice.  When  government  is  thus  conducted  it  leagues  all 
the  virtues  on  its  side  ;  whatever  is  venerable,  whatever  is  good  rallies 
round  the  standard  of  authority ;  and  to  support  the  dignity  of  the 
laws  is  to  support  virtue  itself.  In  persecution  it  is  directly  the 
opposite.  When  innocent  persons  [suffer]  for  a  resolute  adherence 
to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  the  sentiments  of  moral  approbation  are 
necessarily  disjoined  from  the  operation  of  the  laws. 

********** 

The  fear  of  civil  punishment  is  a  motive  which  the  wisdom  of  man- 
kind has  superadded  to  the  other  motives  which  operate  to  restrain 
men  from  criminal  conduct.  The  contempt  and  hatred  of  our  fellow- 
creatures  and  the  dread  of  punishment  from  an  invisible  Judge  are  not 
always  found  in  fact  to  be  of  sufficient  force  to  control  the  unruly 
passions  of  bad  men.  In  addition  to  this,  men  have  contrived  so  to 
organize  society  that  the  disturbers  of  other  men's  peace  and  the 
invaders  of  their  rights  shall  have  to  dread  an  adequate  punishment 
from  the  arm  of  a  public  person  who  represents  the  community.     As 

*  Lib.  X.  Epis.  97.— Ed. 


206  FRAGMENT  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  WORSHIP. 

the  fears  with  which  human  laws  inspire  offenders  are  superadded 
motives,  they  presuppose  the  existence  of  an  original  one.  They  are 
a  superstructure  which  can  only  stand  on  the  foundation  of  those 
distinctions  of  right  and  wrong  which  the  simplest  dictates  of  the 
understanding  recognise.  To  disjoin  the  fear  of  human  [laws]  from 
its  natural  associates,  the  forfeiture  of  public  esteem  and  the  dread  of 
Divine  wrath,  is  a  solecism  of  the  most  glaring  nature. 

Again,  the  terror  of  punishment  is  designed  to  operate  on  the  com- 
munity at  large,  not  on  a  small  number  of  people  of  a  peculiar  manner 
of  thinking.  But  the  great  body  of  a  people  are  affected  only  by  what 
is  palpable  ;  they  are  unable  to  comprehend  subtle  and  refined  reason- 
ing. It  is  only  what  is  plain  and  evident  that  is  tangible  by  their  gross 
conceptions.  Admitting,  therefore,  that  the  criminality  of  persisting  to 
follow  the  dictates  of  conscience  in  matters  of  religion  were  capable 
of  demonstration,  it  would  remain  a  very  improper  object  of  punish- 
ment, because  the  evidence  of  its  criminality  could  never  be  generally 
understood.  The  guilt  of  the  sufferer  would  always  be  considered  as 
very  equivocal,  and  the  sentiments  of  the  community  [divided]  between 
the  condemnation  of  the  persecuted  party  and  the  government.  From 
this  will  naturally  follow  two  parties  in  the  state,  influenced  with  the 
most  vehement  mutual  resentment  and  antipathy,  and  all  the  com- 
bustible materials  already  collected  are  liable  to  be  kindled  by  the 
sparks  of  religious  contention.  Have  not  religious  persecutions  been 
almost  invariably  the  harbinger  of  civil  wars,  alarming  commotions, 
and  awful  calamities  ?  Persecution  in  matters  of  religion  raises  up 
the  very  hydra  it  is  meant  to  destroy.  The  only  plausible  ground  on 
which  it  can  be  defended  is  the  danger  to  the  state  accruing  from  a 
diversity  of  opinion  on  matters  of  the  first  importance,  and  the  necessity, 
in  order  to  secure  public  tranquillity,  to  establish  uniformity  of  opinion. 
But  when  persecutions  are  adopted,  the  lawfulness  of  those  very 
measures  becomes  a  subject  of  contention  as  interesting  as  the  dis- 
sensions it  is  designed  to  terminate. 

The  question  of  the  claim  to  liberty  of  conscience  is  surely  a  ques- 
tion of  this  kind. 


SHORT    STATEMENT 


REASONS 


CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO   PARTY  COMMUNION. 


[Published  in  1826.] 


PREFACE. 


After  having  discussed  so  largely  in  some  former  publications  the 
question  of  strict  communion,  that  is,  the  prevailing  practice  in  the 
Baptist  denomination  of  confining  their  fellowship  to  members  of  their 
own  community,  it  was  not  my  intention  to  trouble  the  public  with  the 
subject  any  further,  not  having  the  least  ambition  for  the  last  Avord  in 
controversy.  But  it  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  it  would  not  be 
difficult  to  condense  the  substance  of  the  argument  within  a  smaller 
compass,  so  as  to  render  it  accessible  to  such  as  have  neither  the 
leisure  nor  the  inclination  to  peruse  a  large  performance.  It  has  been 
my  endeavour  to  cut  off*  every  thing  superfluous,  and  without  doing 
injury  to  the  merits  of  the  cause,  to  present  the  reasoning  which  sus- 
tains it  in  a  concise  and  popular  form  :  how  far  I  have  succeeded  must 
be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader. 

I  would  only  remark  here,  that  all  I  have  seen  and  heard  concurs  to 
convince  me  that  the  practice  of  strict  communion  rests  almost  entirely 
on  authority,  and  that  were  the  influence  of  a  few  great  names  with- 
drawn it  would  sink  under  its  own  weight.  Among  those  of  recent 
date  none  has  been  more  regarded  than  that  of  the  late  venerable 
Fuller ;  and  as  he  left  a  manuscript  on  this  subject  to  be  published 
after  his  death,  he  is  considered  as  having  deposed  his  dying  testimony 
in  its  favour.  That  he  felt  some  predilection  to  a  practice  to  which  he 
had  been  so  long  accustomed,  and  whose  propriety  was  very  rarely 
questioned  in  his  early  days,  is  freely  admitted ;  but  that  he  all  along 
felt  some  hesitation  on  the  subject,  and  that  his  mind  was  not  com- 
pletely made  up,  I  am  induced  to  believe  from  several  circumstances. 
First,  from  the  fact  of  his  proposing  himself  to  commune  at  Cambridge 
with  the  full  knowledge  of  there  being  Pedobaptists  present.  Secondly, 
from  a  conversation  which  passed  many  years  ago  between  him  and 
the  writer  of  these  lines.  In  reply  to  his  observation,  that  we  act 
precisely  on  the  same  principle  with  our  Pedobaptist  brethren,  since 
they  also  insist  on  baptism  as  an  essential  prerequisite  to  communion, 
it  was  remarked  that  this  was  a  mere  argumentum  ad  hominem,  it 
might  serve  to  silence  the  clamours  of  those  Pedobaptists  who  while 
they  adhered  to  that  principle  charged  us  with  bigotry ;  but  that  still 
it  did  not  touch  the  merits  of  the  question,  since  a  previous  inquiry 
occurs,  whether  any  thing  more  is  requisite  to  communion  on  scriptural 
grounds  than  a  vital  union  with  Christ ;  his  answer  was,  When  mixed 

Vol.  II.— O 


210  REASONS  FOR  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNION, 

communion  is  placed  on  that  footing,  I  never  yet  ventured  to  attack  it. 
Hence  I  am  compelled  to  consider  his  posthumous  tract  rather  as  a 
trial  of  what  might  be  adduced  on  that  side  of  the  controversy  with  a 
view  to  provoke  further  inquiry,  than  the  result  of  deliberate  and  settled 
conviction.  Be  this  as  it  may,  great  as  his  merits  were,  he  was  but  a 
man,  and  as  such  liable  to  err  even  on  subjects  of  much  greater  im- 
portance. All  I  wish  is,  that  without  regard  to  human  names  or 
authorities,  the  matter  in  debate  may  be  entirely  determined  by  an 
unprejudiced  appeal  to  reason  and  Scripture. 

The  prevalence  of  this  disposition  to  bow  to  authority  and  to  receive 
opinions  upon  trust  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  following  anecdote. 
A  highly  respected  friend  of  mine,  on  asking  one  of  his  deacons,  a  man 
of  primitive  piety  and  integrity,  what  objections  he  had  to  mixed  com- 
munion, he  replied  with  great  simplicity  that  he  had  two — in  the  first 
place,  Mr.  Fuller  did  not  approve  of  it ;  and  in  the  next,  the  Scripture 
declares  that  "  he  who  pulls  down  a  hedge  a  serpent  shall  bite  him." 
The  good  man  very  properly  placed  that  reason  first  which  carried  the 
greatest  weight  with  it. 

In  short,  there  is  a  certain  false  refinement  and  subtlety  in  the  argu- 
ment for  strict  communion  which  would  never  occur  to  a  plain  man 
who  was  left  solely  to  the  guidance  of  Scripture.  In  common  with 
almost  every  other  error,  it  derived  its  origin  from  the  public  teachers 
of  religion,  and  with  a  change  of  sentiment  in  them  it  will  gradually 
disappear;  nor  will  it  be  long  ere  our  churches  will  be  surprised  that 
they  suffered  themselves  to  be  betrayed  by  specious  but  hollow  sophis- 
try into  a  practice  so  repulsive  and  so  impolitic. 

Amicus  Plato,  amicus  Socrates,  sed  magis  arnica  Veritas, 

October  7.  1826. 


A  SHORT  STATEMENT. 


It  is  admitted  by  all  denominations  of  Christians,  with  the  exception 
of  one,  that  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  of  perpetual  obliga- 
tion, and  that  it  was  designed  by  its  Founder  for  one  of  the  principal 
indications  and  expressions  of  that  fraternal  affection  which  ought  to 
distinguish  his  followers.  Though  the  communion  of  saints  is  of  larger 
extent,  comprehending  all  those  sentiments  and  actions  by  which  Chris- 
tians are  especially  united,  the  joint  participation  of  this  right  is  univer- 
sally acknowledged  to  constitute  an  important  branch  of  that  communion. 
So  important  a  part  has  it  been  considered,  that  it  has  usurped  the  name 
of  the  whole  ;  and  when  any  dispute  arises  respecting  the  terms  of  com- 
munion, it  is  generally  understood  to  relate  to  the  terms  of  admission 
to  the  Lord's  table. 

Whether  all  real  Christians  are  entitled  to  share  in  this  privilege, 
whether  it  forms  a  part  of  that  spiritual  provision  which  belongs  to  the 
whole  family  of  the  faithful,  or  whether  it  is  the  exclusive  patrimony 
of  a  sect,  who  (on  the  ground  of  their  supposed  imperfection)  are 
authorized  to  repel  the  rest,  is  the  question  which  it  is  my  purpose  in 
the  following  pages  briefly  and  calmly  to  discuss. 

The  first  conclusion  to  which  we  should  naturally  arrive  would 
probably  favour  the  more  liberal  system ;  we  should  be  ready  to  sup- 
pose that  he  who  is  accepted  of  Christ  ought  also  to  be  accepted  of  his 
brethren,  and  that  he  whose  right  to  the  thing  signified  was  not  ques- 
tioned possessed  an  undoubted  right  to  the  outward  sign.  There  are 
some  truths  which  are  so  self-evident  that  a  form;il  attempt  to  prove 
them  has  the  appearance  of  trifling,  where  the  premises  and  the  con- 
clusion so  nearly  coincide  that  it  is  not  easy  to  point  out  the  interme- 
diate links  that  at  once  separate  and  connect  them.  Whether  the 
assertion  that  all  sincere  Christians  are  entitled  to  a  place  at  the  Lord's 
table  is  of  that  description  will  more  clearly  appear  as  we  advance ; 
but  I  must  be  permitted  to  say,  that  a  feeling  of  the  kind  just  men- 
tioned has  occasioned  the  greatest  difficulty  I  have  experienced  in  this 
discussion. 

It  is  well  known  that  a  diversity  of  sentiment  has  long  subsisted  in 
this  country  in  relation  to  the  proper  subjects  of  baptism,  together  with 
the  mode  of  administering  that  rite.  While  the  great  body  of  the 
Christian  world  administer  baptism  to  infants,  and  adopt  the  practice 
of  sprinkling  or  pouring  the  sacramental  water,  there  are  some  who 
contend  that  baptism  should  be  confined  to  those  who  are  capable  of 

02 


212  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

understanding  the  articles  of  the  Christian  religion,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  adults,  and  that  the  proper  mode  is  the  immersion  of  the  whole  body. 
They  who  maintain  the  last  of  these  opinions  were  formally  designated 
by  the  appellation  of  Anabaptists ;  but  as  that  term  implied  that  they 
assumed  a  right  of  repeating  baptism,  when  in  reality  their  only  reason 
for  baptizing  such  as  had  been  sprinkled  in  their  infancy  was,  that  they 
looked  upon  the  baptism  of  infants  as  a  mere  human  invention,  the  can- 
dour of  modern  times  has  changed  the  invidious  appellation  of  Anabap- 
tist to  the  more  simple  one  of  Baptist. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  attempt  the  defence  of  that  class  of  Chris- 
tians, though  their  views  are  entirely  in  accordance  with  my  own  ;  one 
consequence,  however,  necessarily  results.  We  are  compelled  by 
virtue  of  them  to  look  upon  the  great  mass  of  our  fellow-christians  as 
unbaptized.  On  no  other  ground  can  we  maintain  our  principles  or 
justify  our  conduct.  Hence  it  has  been  inferred,  too  hastily  in  my 
opinion,  that  we  are  bound  to  abstain  from  their  communion,  whatever 
judgment  we  may  form  of  their  sincerity  and  piety.  Baptism,  it  is 
alleged,  is,  under  all  possible  circumstances,  an  indispensable  term  of 
communion ;  and  houfever  highly  we  may  esteem  many  of  our  Pedo- 
baptist  brethren,  yet,  as  we  cannot  but  deem  them  unbaptized,  we  must 
of  necessity  consider  them  as  disqualified  for  an  approach  to  the  Lord's 
table.  It  is  evident  that  this  reasoning  rests  entirely  on  the  assumption 
that  baptism  is  invariably  a  necessary  condition  of  communion — an 
opinion  which  it  is  not  surprising  the  Baptists  should  have  embraced, 
since  it  has  long  passed  current  in  the  Christian  world,  and  been 
received  by  nearly  all  denominations  of  Christians.  The  truth  is,  it 
has  never  till  of  late  become  a  practical  question,  nor  could  it  while  all 
parties  acknowledged  each  other's  baptism.  It  was  only  when  a  reli- 
gious denomination  arose  whose  principles  compelled  them  to  deny  the 
validity  of  any  other  baptism  besides  that  which  they  themselves  prac- 
tised, that  the  question  respecting  the  relation  which  that  ordinance 
bears  to  the  Lord's  Supper  could  have  any  influence  on  practice.  But 
a  doctrine  which  can  have  no  possible  influence  on  practice  is  received 
with  little  or  no  examination ;  and  to  this  must  be  imputed  the  facility 
with  which  it  has  been  so  generally  admitted  that  baptism  must  neces- 
sarily and  invariably  precede  an  admission  to  the  Lord's  table.  The 
wide  circulation,  however,  of  this  doctrine  ought  undoubtedly  to  have 
the  efi*ect  of  softening  the  severity  of  censure  on  that  conduct  (however 
singular  it  may  appear)  which  is  its  necessary  result :  such  is  that  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  Baptists  in  confining  their  communion  to  those 
whom  they  deem  baptized ;  wherein  they  act  precisely  on  the  same 
principle  with  all  other  Christians,  who  assume  it  for  granted  that  bap- 
tism is  an  essential  preliminary  to  the  reception  of  the  sacrament. 
The  point  on  which  they  difi'er  is  the  nature  of  that  institution,  which 
we  place  in  immersion,  and  of  which  we  suppose  rational  and  account- 
able agents  the  only  fit  subjects  ;  this  opinion,  combined  with  the  other 
generally  received  one,  that  none  are  entitled  to  receive  the  Eucharist 
but  such  as  have  been  baptized,  leads  inevitably  to  the  practice  which 
seems  so  singular  and  gives  so  much  offence — the  restricting  of  com- 


PARTY  COMMUNION.  213 

munion  to  our  own  denomination.  Let  it  be  admitted  that  baptism  is 
under  all  circumstances  a  necessary  condition  of  church-ftllowship, 
and  it  is  impossible  for  the  Baptists  to  act  otherwise.  That  their 
practice  in  this  particular  is  harsh  and  illiberal  is  freely  admitted,  but 
it  is  the  infallible  consequence  of  the  opinion  generally  entertained 
respecting  communion,  conjoined  with  their  peculiar  views  of  the  bap- 
tismal rite.  The  recollection  of  this  may  suffice  to  rebut  the  ridicule 
and  silence  the  clamour  of  those  who  loudly  condemn  the  Baptists  for 
a  proceeding  which,  were  they  but  to  change  their  opinion  on  the  sub- 
ject of  baptism,  their  own  principles  would  compel  them  to  adopt. 
They  both  concur  in  a  common  principle,  from  which  the  practice 
deemed  so  offensive  is  the  necessary  result. 

Considered  as  an  argiimentum  ad  hominem,  or  an  appeal  to  the 
avowed  principles  of  our  opponents,  this  reasoning  may  be  sufficient 
to  shield  us  from  that  severity  of  reproach  to  which  we  are  often  ex- 
posed, nor  ought  we  to  be  censured  for  acting  upon  a  system  which  is 
sanctioned  by  our  accusers.  Still  it  leaves  the  real  merits  of  the  ques- 
tion untouched ;  for  the  inquiry  remains  open,  whether  baptism  is  an 
indispensable  prerequisite  to  communion  ;  in  other  words,  whether  they 
stand  in  such  a  relation  to  each  other  that  the  involuntary  neglect  of 
the  first  incurs  a  forfeiture  of  the  title  to  the  last. 

The  chief,  I  might  say  the  only,  argument  for  the  restricted  plan  of 
communion  is  derived  from  the  example  of  the  apostles  and  the  prac- 
tice of  the  primitive  church.  It  is  alleged,  with  some  appearance  of 
plausibility,  that  the  first  duty  enjoined  on  the  primitive  converts  to 
Christianity  was  to  be  baptized,  that  no  repeal  of  the  law  has  taken 
place  since,  that  the  apostles  uniformly  baptized  their  converts  before 
they  admitted  them  to  the  Sacrament,  and  that  during  the  first  and 
purest  ages  the  church  knew  of  no  members  who  had  not  submitted  to 
that  rite  ;  and  that  consequently  in  declining  a  union  with  those  who, 
however  estimable  in  other  respects,  we  are  obliged  to  consider  as 
unbaptized,  we  are  following  the  highest  precedents,  and  treading  in 
the  hallowed  steps  of  the  inspired  teachers  of  religion.  Such  in  a  few 
words  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  their  reasoning  who  are  the  advo- 
cates of  strict  communion ;  and  as  it  approaches  with  a  lofty  and 
imposing  air,  and  has  prevailed  with  thousands  to  embrace  what  appears 
to  me  a  most  serious  error,  we  must  bespeak  the  reader's  patience 
while  we  endeavour  to  sift  it  to  the  bottom,  in  order  to  expose  its 
fallacy. 

Precedent  derived  from  the  practice  of  inspired  men  is  entitled  to 
be  regarded  as  law  in  exact  proportion  as  the  spirit  of  it  is  copied  and 
the  principle  on  which  it  proceeds  is  acted  upon.  If,  neglectful  of 
these,  we  attend  to  the  letter  only,  we  shall  be  betrayed  into  the  most 
serious  mistakes,  since  there  are  a  thousand  actions  recorded  of  the 
apostles  in  the  government  of  the  church  Avhich  it  would  be  the  height 
of  folly  and  presumption  to  imitate.  Above  all  things,  it  is  necessary 
before  we  proceed  to  found  a  rule  of  action  on  precedent,  carefully  to 
investigate  the  circumstances  under  which  it  occurred  and  the  reasons 
on  which  it  was  founded.     The  apostles,  it  is  acknowledged,  admitted 


214  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

none  to  the  Lord's  Supper  but  such  as  were  previously  baptized ;  but 
under  what  circumstances  did  they  maintain  this  course?  It  was  at  a 
time  wlien  a  mistake  respecting  the  will  of  the  Supreme  Legislator  on 
the  subject  of  baptism  was  impossible ;  it  was  while  a  diversity  of 
opinion  relating  to  it  could  not  possibly  subsist,  because  inspired  men 
were  at  hand,  ready  to  remove  every  doubt  and  satisfy  the  mind  of 
every  honest  inquirer.  It  was  under  circumstances  that  must  have 
convicted  him  who  declined  compliance  with  that  ordinance  of  wilful 
prevarication,  and  stubborn  resistance  to  the  delegates  and  representa- 
tives of  Christ,  who  commissioned  them  to  promulgate  his  laws,  with 
an  express  assurance  that  "  whoever  rejected  them  rejected  him,  and 
whoever  received  them  received  him,"  and  that  to  refuse  to  obey  their 
word  exposed  the  offender  to  a  severer  doom  than  was  allotted  to 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah.*  Their  instructions  were  too  plain  to  be  mis- 
taken, their  authority  too  sacred  to  be  contemned  by  a  professor  of 
Christianity  without  being  guilty  of  daring  impiety.  In  such  a  state 
of  things,  it  may  be  asked,  How  could  they  have  acted  differently  from 
what  they  did?  To  have  received  into  the  church  men  who  disputed 
their  inspiration  and  despised  their  injunctions  would  have  been  to 
betray  their  trust,  and  to  renounce  their  pretensions  as  the  living  de- 
positaries of  the  mind  of  Christ :  to  have  admitted  those  who,  believing 
their  inspiration,  yet  refused  a  compliance  with  their  orders,  would 
have  lei  into  the  church  the  most  unheard-of  licentiousness,  and  pol- 
luted it  by  incorporating  with  its  members  the  worst  of  men.  Neither 
of  these  could  be  thought  of,  and  no  other  alternative  remained  but  to 
insist  as  a  test  of  sincerity  on  a  punctual  compliance  with  what  was 
known  and  acknowledged  as  the  apostolic  doctrine.  "  We  are  of 
God,"  says  St.  John :  "  he  that  knoweth  God  heareth  us ;  he  that  is 
not  o(  God  heareth  not  us  ;  hereby  we  know  the  spirit  of  truth  and  the 
spirit  of  error."!  In  short,  the  apostles  refused  to  impart  the  external 
privileges  of  the  church  to  such  as  impugned  their  authority  or  con- 
temned their  injunctions,  which  whoever  persisted  in  the  neglect  of 
baptism  at  that  time  and  in  those  circumstances  must  necessarily 
have  done. 

But  in  declining  the  communion  of  modern  Pedobaptists,  however  emi- 
nent their  piety,  there  is  really  nothing  analogous  to  their  method  of  pro- 
ceeding. The  resemblance  fails  in  its  most  essential  features.  In  repel- 
ling an  unbaptized  person  from  their  communion,  supposing  such  a  one 
to  have  presented  himself,  they  would  have  rejected  the  violator  of  a 
known  precept ;  he  whom  we  refuse  is  at  most  chargeable  only  with 
mistaking  it.  The  former  must  either  have  neglected  an  acknowledged 
precept,  and  thus  evinced  a  mind  destitute  of  principle,  or  he  must  have 
set  the  authority  of  the  apostles  at  defiance,  and  thus  have  classed 
with  parties  of  the  worst  description.  Our  Pedobaptist  brethren  are 
exposed  to  neither  of  these  charges :  convince  them  that  it  is  their 
duty  to  be  baptized  in  the  method  which  we  approve,  and  they  stand 
ready,  many  of  them  at  least  we  cannot  doubt  stand  ready,  to  perform 
it ;  convince  them  that  it  is  a  necessary  inference  from  the  correct 

,*  Matt.  X.  14, 15.  t  1  John  iv.  6. 


PARTY  COMMUNION.  215 

interpretation  of  the  apostolic  commission,  and  they  will  without  hesi- 
tation bow  to  that  authority. 

The  most  rigid  Baptist  will  probably  admit,  that  however  clear  and 
irresistible  the  evidence  of  his  sentiments  may  appear  to  himself,  there 
are  those  whom  it  fails  to  convince,  and  some  of  them  at  least  illustrious 
examples  of  piety ;  men  who  would  tremble  at  the  thought  of  delibe- 
rately violating  the  least  of  the  commands  of  Christ  or  of  his  apostles  ; 
men  whose  character  and  principles  consequently  form  a  striking 
contrast  with  those  of  the  persons  whom  it  is  allowed  the  apostles 
would  have  repelled.  But  to  separate  ourselves  from  the  best  of  men 
because  the  apostles  would  have  withdrawn  from  the  worst,  to  confound 
the  broadest  moral  distinctions  by  awarding  the  same  treatment  to 
involuntary  and  conscientious  error  which  they  were  prepared  to  inflict 
on  stubborn  and  wilful  disobedience,  is  certainly  a  very  curious  method 
of  following  apostolic  precedent.  "  The  letter  killeth,"  says  St.  Paul, 
"  the  spirit  maketh  alive."  Whether  the  contrariety  of  these  was  ever 
more  strongly  marked  than  by  such  a  method  of  imitating  the  apostles, 
let  the  reader  judge. 

For  the  clearer  illustration  of  this  point  let  us  suppose  a  case.  A 
person  proposes  himself  as  a  candidate  for  admission  to  a  Baptist 
church.  The  minister  inquires  into  his  views  of  the  ordinance  of 
baptism,  and  respectfully  asks  whether  he  is  convinced  of  the  divine 
authority  of  the  rite  which  was  administered  to  him  in  his  infancy. 
He  confesses  he  is  not ;  that  on  mature  deliberation  and  inquiry  he 
considers  it  as  a  human  invention.  On  his  thus  avowing  his  conviction, 
he  is  urged  to  confess  Christ  before  men,  by  a  prompt  compliance  with 
what  he  is  satisfied  is  a  part  of  his  revealed  will :  he  hesitates,  he 
refuses,  alleging  that  it  is  not  essential  to  salvation,  that  it  is  a  mere 
external  rite,  and  that  some  of  the  holiest  of  men  have  died  in  the 
neglect  of  it.  Here  is  a  parallel  case  to  that  of  a  person  who  should 
have  declined  the  ordinance  of  baptism  in  primitive  times  ;  and  in  entire 
consistence  with  the  principles  which  we  are  maintaining,  we  have  no 
hesitation  in  affirming  that  the  individual  in  question  is  disqualified  for 
Christian  communion.  To  receive  him  under  such  circumstances 
would  be  sanctioning  the  want  of  principle,  and  pouring  contempt  on 
the  Christian  precepts.  Yet  the  conduct  we  have  now  supposed  would 
be  less  criminal  than  to  have  shrunk  from  baptism  in  the  apostolic  age, 
because  the  evidence  by  which  our  views  are  supported,  though  suffi- 
cient for  every  practical  purpose,  is  decidedly  inferior  to  that  which 
accompanied  their  first  promulgation :  the  utmost  that  we  can  pretend 
is  a  very  high  probability  ;  the  primitive  converts  possessed  an  absolute 
certainty.  Now  since  we  are  prepared  to  visit  an  inferior  degree  of 
delinquency  to  that  which  would  have  ensured  the  rejection  of  a  can- 
didate by  the  apostles  with  the  same  severity,  how  preposterous  is  it 
to  charge  us  with  departing  from  apostolical  precedent !  In  the  same 
circumstances,  or  in  circumstances  nearly  the  same,  Ave  are  ready 
instantly  to  act  the  same  part :  let  the  circumstances  be  essentially 
varied,  and  our  proceeding  is  proportionably  different.  The  apostles 
refused  whe  communion  of  such,  and  such  only,  as  were  insincere,  "  who 


216  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

held  the  truth  in  unrighteousness,"  avowing  their  conviction  of  one 
system  and  acting  upon  another :  and  wherever  similar  indications 
display  themselves  we  do  precisely  the  same.  They  admitted  the 
weak  and  erroneous,  providing  their  errors  were  not  of  a  nature  sub- 
versive of  Christianity ;  and  so  do  we.  They  tolerated  men  whose 
sentiments  differed  from  their  own,  providing  they  did  not  rear  the 
standard  of  revolt  by  a  deliberate  resistance  to  the  only  infallible 
authority ;  and  such  precisely  is  the  course  we  pursue.  We  bear  with 
those  who  mistake  the  dictates  of  inspiration  in  points  which  are  not 
essential ;  but  with  none  who  wilfully  contradict  or  neglect  them.  In 
the  government  of  the  church,  as  far  as  our  means  of  information 
reach,  the  immediate  ambassadors  of  Christ  appear  to  have  set  us  an 
example  of  much  gentleness  and  mildness,  to  have  exercised  a  tender 
consideration  of  human  imperfection,  and  to  have  reserved  all  their 
severity  for  a  contumacious  rejection  of  their  guidance  and  disdain  of 
their  instructions.  And  wherever  these  features  appear,  we  humbly 
tread  in  their  steps  ;  being  as  little  disposed  as  they  to  countenance  or 
receive  those  who  impugn  their  inspiration  or  censure  their  decisions. 
They  were  certainly  strangers  to  that  scheme  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
which  proposes  to  divide  the  mystical  body  of  Christ  into  two  parts, 
one  consisting  of  such  as  enjoy  communion  with  him,  the  other  of 
such  as  are  entitled  to  commune  with  each  other.  In  no  part  of  their 
writings  is  the  faintest  vestige  to  be  discerned  of  that  state  of  things 
of  which  our  opponents  are  enamoured,  where  a  vast  majority  of  sincere 
Christians  are  deemed  disqualified  for  Christian  fellowship,  and  while 
their  pretensions  to  acceptance  with  God  and  a  title  to  eternal  life  are 
undisputed,  are  yet  to  be  kept  in  a  state  of  seclusion  from  the  visi- 
ble church.  Had  they  in  any  part  of  their  epistles  appeared  to  broach 
such  a  doctrine, — had  they  lavished  high  encomiums  on  the  faith  and 
piety  of  those  with  whom  they  refused  to  associate  at  the  Lord's  Supper, 
our  astonishment  at  sentiments  so  singular  and  so  eccentric  would  have 
been  such,  that  scarcely  any  conceivable  uniformity  of  manuscripts  or  of 
versions  could  have  accredited  the  passages  that  contained  them.  That 
the  primitive  church  was  composed  of  professed  believers,  and  none 
debarred  from  its  privileges  but  such  whose  faith  was  essentially 
erroneous  or  their  character  doubtful,  is  a  matter  of  fact  which  appears 
on  the  very  surface  of  the  inspired  records,  and  was  probably  never 
called  in  question,  in  any  age  or  country,  until  an  opposite  principle 
was  avowed  and  acted  upon  by  the  modern  Baptists,  who  appropriate 
its  title  and  its  immunities  to  themselves,  while  with  strange  incon- 
sistency they  proclaim  their  conviction  that  the  persons  whom  they 
exclude  are  indisputably  in  possession  of  its  interior  and  spiritual 
privileges.  For  this  portentous  separation  of  the  internal  from  the 
outward  and  visible  privileges  of  Christianity, — for  confining  the  latter 
to  a  mere  handful  of  such  as  have  "  obtained  like  precious  faith  with 
themselves,"  in  vain  will  they  seek  for  support  in  the  example  of  the 
apostles.  They  repeatedly  and  earnestly  warn  us  against  resting  in 
external  advantages,  and  of  the  danger  of  substituting  the  outward 
sign  for  the  inward  and  spiritual  grace  :    but  never  give  the  slightest 


PARTY  COMMUNION. 


217 


intimation  of  the  possibility  of  possessing  the  first,  without  being 
entitled  to  the  last.  The  assertion  of  such  an  opinion,  and  the  practice 
founded  upon  it,  the  reader  will  at  once  perceive,  is  a  departure  from 
the  precedent  and  example  of  the  earliest  age  which  it  would  be  difiicult 
to  parallel. 

In  opposition,  however,  to  all  that  has  been  urged  to  show  the  obvious 
disparity  between  the  two  cases,  our  opponents  still  reiterate  the  cry, 
The  apostles  did  not  tolerate  the  omission  of  baptism,  and  therefore 
we  are  not  justified  in  tolerating  it !  But  is  the  omission  of  a  duty  to 
be  judged  of  in  relation  to  its  moral  quality,  without  any  regard  to 
circumstances,  without  any  consideration  whether  it  be  voluntary  or 
involuntary,  whether  it  proceed  from  perversity  of  will  or  error  of 
judgment,  from  an  erroneous  interpretation  of  our  Lord's  precepts  or 
a  contempt  of  his  injunctions;  and  supposing  our  Pedobaptist  brethren 
to  be  sincere  and  conscientious,  is  there  any  resemblance  between 
them  and  those  whom  the  apostles,  it  is  allowed,  would  have  repelled, 
except  in  the  mere  circumstance  of  their  being  both  unbaptized,  the 
one  because  they  despised  the  apostolic  injunctions,  the  other  because 
they  mistake  them?  The  former  (supposing  them  to  have  existed  at 
all)  must  have  been  men  over  whose  conscience  the  word  of  God  had 
no  power ;  the  latter  tremble  at  his  word,  and  are  restrained  from 
following  our  example  by  deference  to  his  will.  If  such  opposite 
characters  are  the  natural  objects  of  a  contrary  state  of  feeling,  they 
must  be  equally  so  of  a  contrary  treatment ;  nor  can  any  thing  be  more 
preposterous  than  to  confound  them  together,  under  the  pretence  of  a 
regard  to  apostolic  precedent.  Our  treatment  of  mankind  should 
midoubtedly  be  the  expression  of  our  feelings,  and  regulated  by  our 
estimate  of  their  character.  Strict  communion  prescribes  the  contrary ; 
it  sets  the  conduct  and  the  feelings  at  variance,  and  erects  into  a  duty 
the  mortification  of  our  best  and  holiest  propensities. 

The  discipline  of  the  church,  as  prescribed  by  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
is  founded  on  principles  applicable  to  every  age  and  to  every  combi- 
nation of  events  to  which  it  is  liable,  in  a  world  replete  with  change, 
where  new  forms  of  error,  new  modes  of  aberration  from  the  paths  of 
rectitude  and  truth,  are  destined  to  follow  in  rapid  and  unceasing  suc- 
cession. Among  these  we  are  compelled  to  enumerate  the  prevailino- 
notions  of  the  Christian  world  on  the  subject  of  baptism — an  error 
•which,  it  is  obvious,  could  have  no  subsistence  during  the  age  of  the 
apostles.  Here  then  arises  a  new  case,  and  it  becomes  a  matter  of 
serious  inquiry  how  it  is  to  be  treated.  It  plainly  cannot  be  decided 
by  a  reference  to  apostolic  precedent,  because  nothing  of  this  kind 
then  existed,  or  could  exist.  The  precept  which  enjoined  the  baptism 
of  new  converts  might  be  resisted,  but  it  could  not  be  mistaken,  and 
therefore  no  inference  can  be  drawn  from  the  treatment  which  it  is 
admitted  the  apostles  would  have  assigned  to  wilful  disobedience,  that 
is  applicable  to  the  case  of  involuntary  error.  The  only  method  of 
arriving  at  a  satisfactory  conclusion  is,  to  consider  how  they  conducted 
themselves  towards  sincere  though  erring  Christians,  together  with 
the  temper  they  recommend  us  to  cultivate  towards  such  as  labour 


218  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

under  mistakes  and  misconceptions  not  inconsistent  with  piety.  With- 
out expecting  a  specific  direction  for  tlie  regulation  of  our  conduct  in 
this  identical  particular,  which  would  be  to  suppose  the  error  in  question 
not  new,  it  is  quite  sufficient  if  the  general  principle  of  toleration 
which  the  New  Testament  enjoins  is  found  to  comprehend  the  present 
instance. 

If  action  be  founded  on  conviction,  as  it  undoubtedly  is  in  all  well- 
regulated  minds,  we  are  as  much  obliged  to  mould  our  sentiments  into 
an  agreement  with  those  of  the  apostles  as  our  conduct :  inspired 
precedents  of  thought  are  as  authoritative  as  those  of  action.  The 
advocates  of  strict  communion  are  clamorous  in  their  demand  that,  in 
relation  to  church-fellowship,  we  should  treat  all  Pedobaptists  exactly 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  apostles  would  have  treated  unbaptized 
persons  in  their  day.  But  must  we  not  for  the  same  reason  think  the 
same  of  them  1  This,  however,  they  disclaim  as  much  as  we  do : 
they  are  perfectly  sensible,  nor  have  they  the  hardihood  to  deny,  that 
the  difference  is  immense  between  a  conscientious  mistake  of  the 
mind  of  Christ  on  a  particular  subject,  and  a  deliberate  contempt  or 
neglect  of  it.  Who  can  doubt  that  the  apostles  would  be  the  first  to 
feel  this  distinction ;  and  as  they  would  undoubtedly,  in  common  with 
all  conscientious  persons,  regulate  their  conduct  by  their  sentiments, 
that,  could  they  be  personally  consulted,  they  would  recommend  a 
correspondent  difference  of  treatment  ?  To  sum  up  the  argument  in  a 
few  words :  Nothing  can  be  more  hollow  and  fallacious  than  the  pre- 
tension of  our  opponents  that  they  are  guided  by  inspired  precedent, 
for  we  have  no  precedent  in  the  case  ;  in  other  words,  we  have  no 
example  of  the  manner  in  which  they  conducted  themselves  towards 
such  as  fell  into  an  error  on  the  subject  of  baptism ;  the  Scriptures 
make  no  allusion  to  such  an  error  which  attaches  at  present  to  many 
most  tenacious  of  its  authority,  humbly  submissive  to  its  /dictates,  and 
deeply  imbued  with  its  spirit;  to  men,  in  a  word,  of  the  most  opposite 
character  to  those  who  may  be  supposed,  in  consequence  of  setting 
light  by  the  authority  of  inspired  teachers,  to  have  neglected  baptism 
in  the  first  ages. 

Thus  much  may  suffice  for  apostolic  precedent.  There  is  still  one 
more  view  of  the  subject  to  which  the  attention  of  the  reader  is  re- 
quested for  a  moment.  It  remains  to  be  considered  whether  there  is 
any  peculiar  connexion  between  the  two  ordinances  of  baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper,  either  in  the  nature  of  things  or  by  divine  appoint- 
ment, so  as  to  render  it  improper  to  administer  the  one  without  the 
other.  That  there  is  no  natural  connexion  is  obvious.  They  were 
instituted  at  different  times  and  for  different  purposes ;  baptism  is  a 
mode  of  professing  our  faith  in  the  blessed  Trinity,  the  Lord's  Supper 
as  a  commemoration  of  the  dying  love  of  the  Redeemer :  the  former 
is  the  act  of  an  individual,  the  latter  of  a  society.  The  words  which 
contain  our  warrant  for  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  convey  no 
allusion  to  baptism  whatever  :  those  which  prescribe  baptism  carry 
no  anticipative  reference  to  the  Eucharist.  And  as  it  is  demonstrable 
that  John's  baptism  was  a  separate  institution  from  that  which  was 


PARTY  COMMUNION. 


219 


enacted  after  our  Lord's  resurrection,  the  Lord's  Supper  is  evidently 
anterior  lo  baptism,  and  the  original  communicants  consisted  entirely 
of  such  as  had  not  received  that  ordinance.  To  all  appearance,  the 
rites  in  question  rest  on  independent  grounds.  But  perhaps  there  is  a 
special  connexion  between  the  two,  arising  from  divine  appointment. 
If  this  be  the  case,  it  will  be  easy  to  point  it  out.  Rarely,  if  ever,  are 
they  mentioned  together,  and  on  no  occasion  is  it  asserted,  or  insin- 
uated, that  the  validity  of  the  sacrament  depends  on  the  previous  obser- 
vation of  the  baptismal  ceremony.  That  there  was  such  a  connexion 
between  circumcision  and  the  passover  we  learn  from  the  explicit 
declaration  of  Moses,  who  asserts  that  "  no  uncircumcised  person  shall 
eat  thereof."  Let  a  similar  prohibition  be  produced  in  the  present 
instance,  and  the  controversy  is  at  an  end. 

The  late  excellent  Mr.  Fuller,  in  a  posthumous  pamphlet  on  this 
subject,  laboured  hard  to  prove  an  instituted  connexion  between  the 
two  ordinances  ;  but  his  conclusion  from  the  premises  is  so  feeble  and 
precarious,  that  we  strongly  suspect  his  own  mind  was  not  fully  made 
up  on  the  subject.  His  reasoning  is  certainly  very  little  adapted  to 
satisfy  an  impartial  inquirer.  The  whole  performance  appears  more 
like  an  experiment  of  what  might  be  advanced  in  favour  of  a  prevail- 
ing hypothesis,  than  the  result  of  deep  and  deliberate  conviction. 

On  this  point  our  opponents  are  at  variance  with  each  other ;  Mr. 
Kinghorn  roundly  asserts  that  baptism  has  no  more  connexion  with 
the  Lord's  Supper  than  with  every  other  part  of  Christianity.  Thus 
what  Mr.  Fuller  attempts  to  demonstrate  as  the  main  pillar  of  his 
cause,  Mr.  Kinghorn  abandons  without  scruple.  What  a  fortunate 
position  is  that  to  which  men  may  arrive  who  proceed  in  the  most 
opposite  directions — a  sort  of  mental  antipodes,  which  you  will  reach 
with  equal  certainty  whether  you  advance  by  the  east  or  by  the  west. 
From  the  title  of  Mr.  Kinghorn's  book,  which  is, "  Baptism  a  Term  of 
Communion,"  we  should  be  led  to  expect  that  it  was  his  principal 
object  to  trace  some  specific  relation  which  these  rites  bear  to  each 
other.  No  such  thing :  he  denies  there  is  any  such  relation  :  baptism, 
he  declares,  is  no  otherwise  connected  with  the  Lord's  Supper  than  it 
is  with  every  other  part  of  Christianity.  But  on  his  hypothesis  it  is 
essential  to  the  Eucharist,  and  consequently  it  is  essential  to  every 
part  of  Christianity ;  so  that  the  omission  of  it,  from  whatever  cause, 
is  such  an  error  in  the  first  concoction,  that  it  vitiates  every  branch  of 
religion,  disqualifies  for  all  its  duties,  and  incurs  the  forfeiture  of  all 
its  privileges.  This  is  the  statement  of  a  man  who  makes  loud  pro- 
fessions of  attachment  to  our  Pedobaptist  brethren ',  nor  can  he  escape 
from  this  strange  dilemma  but  by  retracing  his  steps,  and  taking  his 
stand  with  Mr.  Fuller  on  a  supposed  instituted  relation  between  the 
two  ordinances.  Meanwhile,  it  is  instructive  to  observe  in  what  in- 
extricable labyrinths  the  aculest  minds  are  entangled  which  desert  the 
high  road  of  common  sense  in  pursuit  of  fanciful  theories. 

Having  cleared  the  way,  by  showing  that  Scripture  precedent, 
properly  interpreted,  affords  no  countenance  or  support  to  strict  com- 
munion, the  remaining  task  is  very  easy.     For  nothing  can  be  mpre 


220  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

evident  than  that  the  whole  genius  of  Christianity  is  favourable  to  the 
most  cordial  and  aifectionate  treatment  of  our  fellovv-christians.  To 
love  them  fervently,  to  bear  with  their  imperfections,  and  cast  the 
mantle  of  forgiveness  over  their  infirmities  is  to  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ. 
A  schism  in  his  mystical  body  is  deprecated  as  the  greatest  evil,  and 
whatever  tends  to  promote  it  is  subjected  to  the  severest  reprobation. 
"  Now  I  beseech  you,  by  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  is  the  language 
of  St.  Paul,  "  that  ye  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no 
divisions  among  you ;  but  that  ye  be  perfectly  joined  together  in  the 
same  mind  and  in  the  same  judgment.  For  it  has  been  declared  unto 
me,  by  them  who  are  of  the  house  of  Chloe,  that  there  are  conten- 
tions among  you.  Now  this  I  say,  that  every  one  of  you  saith,  I  am 
of  Paul,  and  I  of  Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas,  and  I  of  Christ.  Is 
Christ  divided  ?  was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  or  were  ye  baptized  in 
the  name  of  Paul  ?"  In  applying  these  and  innumerable  other  pas- 
sages of  similar  import  to  the  point  under  discussion,  two  questions 
occur.  First,  Are  our  Pedobaptist  brethren  a  part  of  the  mystical 
body  of  Christ  ?  or,  in  other  words.  Do  they  form  a  portion  of  that 
church  which  he  has  purchased  by  his  precious  blood  ?  If  they  are 
not,  they  are  not  in  a  state  of  salvation,  since  none  can  be  in  that  state 
who  are  not  vitally  united  to  Christ.  The  Bible  acknowledges  but 
two  classes  into  which  the  whole  human  race  is  distributed,  the  church 
and  the  world  ;  there  is  no  intermediate  condition ;  whoever  is  not  of 
the  first  necessarily  belongs  to  the  last.  But  the  advocates  for  strict 
communion  are  loud  in  their  professions  of  esteem  for  pious  Pedobap- 
tists,  nor  is  there  any  thing  they  would  more  resent  than  a  doubt  of 
their  sincerity  in  that  particular.  The  persons  whom  they  exclude 
from  their  communion  are  then,  by  their  own  confession,  a  part  of  the 
flock  of  Christ,  a  portion  of  his  mystical  body,  and  of  that  church 
which  he  has  bought  with  his  blood. 

The  next  question  is,  Whether  a  formal  separation  from  them  on 
the  account  of  their  imputed  error  amounts  to  what  the  Scripture  styles 
schism  1  Supposing  one  part  of  the  church  at  Corinth  had  formally 
severed  themselves  from  the  other,  and  established  a  separate  com- 
munion, allowing  those  whom  they  had  forsaken,  at  the  same  time, 
the  title  of  sincere  Christians,  would  this  have  been  considered  as  a 
schism  1  That  it  would  is  demonstrable  from  the  language  of  St. 
Paul,  who  accuses  the  Corinthians  of  having  schisms*  among  them, 
though  they  never  dreamed  of  forming  a  distinct  and  separate  com- 
munion. If  they  are  charged  with  schism  on  account  of  that  spirit 
of  contention  and  that  alienation  of  their  affections  from  each  other 
which  merely  tended  to  an  open  rupture,  how  much  more  would  they 
have  incurred  that  censure  had  they  actually  proceeded  to  that  ex- 
tremity ?  Schism,  in  its  primitive  and  literal  sense,  signifies  the  break- 
ing of  a  substance  into  two  or  more  parts,  and  when  figuratively  applied 
to  a  body  of  men  it  denotes  the  division  of  it  into  parties ;  and  though 
it  may  be  applied  to  such  a  state  of  contention  as  consists  with  the 

*The  original  word  rendered  divisions  is  trxia-juara,  schism». 


PARTY  COMMUNION, 


221 


preservation  of  external  union,  it  is  most  eminently  applicable  to  a 
society  whose  bond  of  union  is  dissolved,  and  where  one  part  reiecta 
the  other  from  its  fellowship.  If  there  is  any  meaning  in  terms,  this 
is  schism  in  its  highest  sense.  The  great  apostle  of  the  gentiles 
illustrates  the  union  of  the  faithful  by  that  which  subsists  between  the 
members  of  the  natural  body.  "  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
members  in  particular."  He  shows,  in  a  beautiful  and  impressive 
manner,  that  the  several  members  have  each  his  distinct  function,  and 
are  pervaded  by  a  common  sympathy,  with  the  expressive  design  "  that 
there  be  no  schism  in  the  body."  But  when  one  part  of  the  Christian 
church  avowedly  excludes  another  from  their  communion,  when  they 
refuse  to  unite  in  the  most  distinguishing  branch  of  social  worship, 
and  hold  themselves  in  a  state  of  seclusion,  they  virtually  say  to  the 
party  thus  repelled,  "  We  have  no  need  of  thee  ;"  they  cut  themselves  off 
from  the  body,  and  are  guilty  of  a  schism  so  open  and  conspicuous 
that  none  can  fail  to  perceive  it.  How  is  it  possible  for  them  to  evade 
the  conclusion  to  which  this  reasoning  conducts  us,  unless  they  are 
prepared  to  deny  the  claim  of  the  Pedobaptists  to  be  regarded  as  the 
members  of  Christ,  or  place  them  in  some  intermediate  station  between 
the  world  and  the  church  ?  But  the  language  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  uniformly  identifies  the  objects  of  the  Divine  favour  with  the 
members  of  Christ's  church,  is  directly  opposed  to  such  a  fiction. 
"  He  loved  the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it,  that  he  might  sanctify 
and  cleanse  it,  by  the  washing  of  water  through  the  Word,  that  he 
might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  not  having  spot,  or 
wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing." 

It  deserves  the  serious  consideration  of  our  opponents,  that  they  are 
contending  for  that  schism  in  the  body  of  Christ  against  which  he  so 
fervently  prayed,  so  anxiously  guarded,  and  which  his  apostles  repre- 
sent as  its  greatest  calamity  and  reproach.  "  The  glory,"  said  our 
Lord,  "  which  thou  hast  given  me,  I  have  given  them,  that  they  may  be 
one,  even  as  we  are  one ;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be 
made  perfect  in  one ;  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent 
me,  and  hast  loved  them  as  thou  hast  loved  me."  Here  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  our  Pedobaptist  brethren  are  comprehended  in  this  prayer, 
because  our  Lord  declares  it  was  preferred,  not  merely  for  the  disciples 
then  existing,  but  for  those  also  who  should  hereafter  believe  through 
their  word,  adding,  "  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  thou,  Father,  art  in 
me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us,  that  tlie  world  may 
believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me."  In  these  words  we  find  him  praying 
for  a  visible  union  among  his  disciples — such  a  union  as  the  world 
might  easily  perceive ;  and  this  he  entreats  in  behalf  of  them  all,  that 
they  all  may  be  one.  The  advocates  of  strict  communion  plead  for  a 
visible  disunion;  nor  will  it  avail  them  to  reply  that  they  cultivate  a 
fraternal  affection  towards  Christians  of  other  denominations,  while 
they  insist  on  such  a  visible  separation  as  must  make  it  apparent  to 
the  world  that  they  are  jiot  one.  Internal  sentiments  of  esteem  are 
cognizable  only  by  the  Searcher  of  hearts ;  external  indications  are 
all  that  the  world  has  to  judge  by  ;  and  so  far  are  they  from  exhibiting 


222  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

these,  that  they  value  themselves  in  maintaining  such  a  position  towards 
their  fellow-christians  as  confounds  them,  in  a  very  important  point, 
with  infidels  and  heathens.  If  a  rent  and  division  in  the  body  is  preg- 
nant with  so  much  scandal  and  offence  as  the  Scriptures  represent  it, 
if  the  spirit  of  love  and  concord  is  the  distinguishing  badge  of  the 
Christian  profession,  it  is  surprising  it  has  never  occurred  to  them, 
that  by  insisting  on  such  a  separation  as  was  unheard  of  in  the  primi- 
tive times,  every  approach  to  which  is  denounced  in  Scripture  as  a 
most  serious  evil,  they  are  acting  in  direct  opposition  to  the  genius  of 
the  gospel  and  the  solemn  injunctions  of  its  inspired  teachers.  What 
degree  of  criminality  may  attach  to  such  a  procedure  it  is  not  for  us 
to  determine ;  but  we  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming,  that  it  is  most 
abhorrent  from  the  intention  of  the  Head  of  the  church,  and  miserably 
compensated  by  that  more  correct  view  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism 
which  is  alleged  in  its  support.  "  Charity  is  the  end  of  the  command- 
ment," "  the  fulfilling  of  the  law ;"  and  since  the  religion  of  Christ 
is  not  ceremonial,  but  vital,  and  consists  less  in  correct  opinions  and 
ritual  observances  than  in  those  graces  of  the  Spirit  which  are  the 
"hidden  man  of  the  heart,"  it  deserves  serious  consideration  whether 
so  palpable  a  violation  of  the  unity  of  the  church  is  not  more  oflensive 
in  the  eyes  of  Him  who  "  tries  the  hearts  and  the  reins,"  than  an 
involuntary  mistake  of  a  ceremonial  precept. 

Here  we  must  be  allowed  once  more  to  recur  to  the  vain  boast  of  a 
scrupulous  adherence  to  the  example  of  the  apostles  (the  futility  of 
which  has,  I  trust,  been  sufficiently  demonstrated),  and  request  our 
opponents  to  reflect  for  a  moment  on  their  essential  deviation  in  this 
particular.  Say,  did  the  apostles  refuse  the  communion  of  good  men  ? 
Did  they  set  the  example  of  dividing  them  into  two  classes,  a  qualified 
and  a  disqualified  class  ;  and  while  they  acknowledged  the  latter  were 
objects  of  the  Divine  favour  equally  whh  themselves,  enjoin  on  their 
converts  the  duty  of  disowning  them  at  the  Lord's  table  ?  Are  any 
traces  to  be  discovered  in  the  New  Testament  of  a  society  of  Purists, 
who,  under  the  pretence  of  superior  illumination  on  one  subject,  kept 
themselves  aloof  from  the  Christian  world,  excluding  from  their  com- 
munion myriads  of  those  whom  they  believed  to  be  heirs  of  salvation  ? 
Did  they  narrow  their  views  of  church-fellowship,  as  Mr.  Kinghorn 
avows  is  the  case  of  the  modern  Baptists,  to  the  purpose  of  holding 
up  to  view  one  neglected  truth  ?  On  this  plan,  as  many  separate  com- 
munions will  be  witnessed  as  there  are  varieties  of  religious  taste  and 
predilection,  while  each  fancies  it  perceives  some  neglected  duty  or 
some  truth  not  rendered  sufficiently  prominent,  till  almost  every  inquiry 
will  give  birth  to  some  solitary  and  antisocial  sect.  The  direct  tendency 
of  such  a  principle  is  not  merely  to  annihilate  the  unity  of  the  church, 
but  to  contract  the  heart,  to  narrow  the  understanding,  and,  in  the  room 
of  "  holding  forth  the  word  of  life,"  to  invest  every  petty  speculation 
and  minute  opinion  with  the  dignity  of  a  fundamental  truth. 

The  revival  or  propagation  of  some  one  particular  truth  being  the 
avowed  object  of  their  union,  the  members  of  such  a  society  will 
almost  inevitably  attach  to  it  an  undue  importance ;  and  as  their  attention 


PARTY  COMMUNION.  223 

will  be  chiefly  directed  towards  that  in  whicli  they  difTer  from  others, 
and  in  which  they  are  conceived  to  excel,  it  will  be  a  miracle  if  they 
escape  a  censorious,  conceited,  disputatious  spirit.  While  their  con- 
stitution is  founded  not  so  much  on  a  separation  from  the  world  as 
from  the  church,  they  will  be  almost  irresistibly  tempted  to  transfer  to 
the  latter  a  large  portion  of  the  associations  and  feelings  of  which  the 
former  is  the  proper  object. 

How  refreshing  is  it  to  turn  from  these  rigid  and  repulsive  principles 
to  the  contemplation  of  the  generous  maxims  of  the  New  Testament ! 
"  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  receive  ye,  not  to 
doubtful  disputations  ;"*  and  after  illustrating  his  meaning  by  adducing 
examples  of  various  diversities  of  sentiment  among  his  converts,  he 
proceeds  to  inculcate  the  most  perfect  mutual  toleration.  It  is  ob- 
servable that  the  diflerences  of  opinion  which  he  specifies  related  to 
the  obligation  of  certain  positive  institutes,  to  which,  though  abrogated 
by  the  new  dispensation,  part  of  the  church  adhered,  while  its  more 
enlightened  members  understood  and  embraced  the  liberty  with  which 
Christ  had  made  them  free.  "  We  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear 
the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  not  to  please  ourselves."  A  mo- 
ment's attention  to  the  connexion  will  convince  the  reader  that  the 
term  xocak  in  both  these  passages  denotes  persons  whose  conceptions 
are  erroneous ;  for  the  inspired  writer  is  not  adverting  to  the  different 
degrees  of  conviction  with  which  the  same  truths  are  embraced,  but  to 
a  palpable  diflerence  of  judgment.  Thus  far  the  case  here  decided  is 
precisely  similar  to  that  under  present  discussion  :  our  difference  from 
the  Pedobaplists  turns  on  the  nature  and  obligation  of  a  positive  insti- 
tute. The  error  of  which  St.  Paul  enjoined  the  toleration  consisted  in 
adhering  to  certain  ceremonies  which  had  been  abrogated ;  the  error  with 
which  we  are  concerned  consists  in  mistaking  a  ceremony  which  is 
still  in  force.  Neither  of  the  ancient  nor  of  the  modern  error  is  it  pre- 
tended that  they  are  fundamental,  or  that  they  endanger  the  salvation 
of  those  who  hold  them.  Thus  far  they  stand  on  the  same  footing, 
and  the  presumption  is  that  they  ought  to  be  treated  in  the  same 
manner.  Before  we  come  to  this  conclusion,  however,  it  behooves  us 
to  examine  the  principle  on  which  the  apostle  enjoins  toleration,  and 
if  this  is  applicable  in  its  full  extent  to  the  case  of  our  Pedobaptist 
brethren,  no  room  is  left  for  doubt.  The  principle  plainly  is,  that  the 
error  in  question  was  not  of  such  magnitude  as  to  preclude  him  who 
maintained  it  from  the  favour  of  God.  "  Let  not  him  who  eateth 
despise  him  who  eateth  not ;  and  let  not  him  who  eateth  not  judge 
him  who  eateth;  for  God  hath  received  him.  Who  art  thou  that  judgest 
another  man's  servant  ?  To  his  own  master  he  standeth  or  falleth. 
Yea,  he  shall  be  holden  up ;  for  God  is  able  to  make  him  stand.''''  In 
the  same  manner,  in  the  next  chapter  of  the  same  epistle,  after  remind- 
ing the  strong  that  it  is  their  duty  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak, 
he  adds,  "  Wherefore,  receive  ye  one  another,  as  Christ  also  hath 
received  us,  to  the  glory  of  the  Father."  If  such  is  the  reason  assigned 
for  mutual  toleration,  and  it  is  acknowledged  to  be  a  sufficient  one, 

♦  Bom.  xiv.  1. 


224  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

wliich  none  can  deny  without  impeaching  the  inspiration  of  the  writer, 
it  is  as  conclusive  respecting  the  obligation  of  tolerating  every  error 
which  is  consistent  with  a  state  of  salvation  as  if  that  error  had  been 
mentioned  by  name  ;  and  as  few,  if  any,  are  to  be  met  with  who  doubt 
the  piety  of  many  Pedobaptists,  it  not  only  justifies  their  reception,  but 
renders  it  an  indispensable  duty.  Nothing  can  be  more  futile  than  the 
attempt  to  turn  aside  the  edge  of  this  reasoning  by  remarking  that 
there  is  no  mention  of  baptism,  and  that  this  is  not  the  subject  of  which 
St.  Paul  is  treating,  as  though  the  Bible  contained  no  general  prin- 
ciples, no  maxims  of  universal  application,  but  that  precise  directions 
must  be  found  for  every  possible  emergence  that  in  the  lapse  of  ages 
may  occur.  Were  it  constructed  upon  this  plan,  the  Bible  must  be 
infinitely  more  voluminous  than  the  statutes  at  large.  It  is  composed 
on  one  widely  different ;  it  gives  general  rules  of  action,  broad  prin- 
ciples, leaving  them  to  be  applied  under  the  guidance  of  sound  discre- 
tion ;  and  wherever  it  has  decided  a  doubtful  question,  accompanied 
with  an  express  statement  of  the  principle  on  which  the  decision  is 
founded,  such  explanation  has  all  the  force  of  an  apostolic  canon,  by 
which  we  are  bound  to  regulate  our  conduct  in  all  the  variety  of  cases 
to  which  it  applies.  Hence  we  have  only  one  alternative,  either  to 
deny  that  those  who  differ  from  us  on  the  subject  of  baptism  are 
accepted  of  God,  or  to  receive  them  into  fellowship  on  exactly  the 
same  ground  and  on  the  same  principle  that  Paul  enjoined  the  tolera- 
tion of  sincere  Christians. 

Before  I  dismiss  this  part  of  the  subject,  on  which  the  patience  of 
the  reader  has  been  severely  tasked,  I  must  beg  leave  to  notice  a 
striking  inconsistence  in  the  advocates  of  strict  communion.  Nothing 
is  more  certain  than  that  the  communion  of  saints  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  one  particular  occasion,  or  limited  to  one  transaction,  such  as 
that  of  assembling  around  the  Lord's  table  ;  it  extends  to  all  the  modes 
by  which  believers  recognise  each  other  as  the  members  of  a  common 
head.  Every  expression  of  fraternal  regard,  every  participation  in 
the  enjoyments  of  social  worship,  every  instance  of  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  exerted  in  prayer  and  supplication  or  in  acts  of  Christian  sym- 
pathy and  friendship,  as  truly  belongs  to  the  communion  of  saints  as 
the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist.  In  truth,  if  we  are  strangers  to 
communion  with  our  fellow-christians  on  other  occasions,  it  is  impos- 
sible for  us  to  enjoy  it  there  ;  for  the  mind  is  not  a  piece  of  mechanism 
which  can  be  set  a-going  at  pleasure,  whose  movements  are  obedient 
to  the  call  of  time  and  place.  Nothing  short  of  an  habitual  sympathy 
of  spirh,  springing  from  the  cultivation  of  benevolent  feeling  and  the 
interchange  of  kind  offices,  will  secure  that  reciprocal  delight,  that 
social  pleasure,  which  is  the  soul  of  Christian  communion.  Its  richest 
fruits  are  frequently  reserved  for  private  conference,  like  that  in  which 
the  two  disciples  were  engaged  in  their  way  to  Emmaus,  when  their 
hearts  btirned  within  them,  while  the  Lord  opened  to  them  the  Scrip- 
tures. When  they  take  sweet  counsel  together  as  they  go  to  the 
house  of  God  in  company,  when  they  bear  each  other's  burthens,  weep 
with  those  that  weep,  and  rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice ;  say,  have 


PARTY  COMMUNION.  225 

Christians  no  mutual  fellowship  1  Is  it  not  surprising  that,  losing 
sight  of  such  obvious  facts,  our  opponents  always  reason  on  the  sub- 
ject of  communion  as  though  it  related  merely  to  the  sacrament?  In 
every  other  particular  they  act  just  as  we  do. 

However  our  opponents  may  deviate  from  Scripture,  let  them  at 
least  be  consistent  with  themselves,  and  either  follow  out  their  own 
principles  to  their  just  consequence  by  withholding  from  the  members 
of  other  denominations  every  token  of  fraternal  regard,  or  freely  admit 
them  to  the  Lord's  table.  As  the  case  stands  at  present,  their  mode 
of  proceeding  is  utterly  untenable.  In  a  variety  of  instances  they 
indulge  themselves  in  those  acts  of  communion  with  Pedobaptists 
which  are  peculiar  to  Christians :  they  frequently  make  them  their 
mouth  in  addressing  the  Deity ;  they  exchange  pulpits  ;  and  even 
engage  their  assistance  in  exercises  intended  as  a  preparation  for  the 
Eucharist ;  and  after  lighting  the  flame  of  devotion  at  their  torch,  they 
most  preposterously  turn  round  to  inform  them  that  they  are  not 
worthy  to  participate.  It  would  be  difficult  to  convince  a  stranger  to 
our  practice  that  it  were  possible  to  be  guilty  of  such  an  absurdity.  Is 
the  observance  of  an  external  rite,  let  me  ask,  a  more  solemn  part  of 
religion  than  addressing  the  Majesty  of  heaven  and  of  earth  ?  And 
shall  we  depute  him  to  present  our  prayers  at  His  footstool  who  would 
defile  a  sacrament  by  his  presence  1  Suppose  them  to  relax  from  their 
rigour,  and  to  admit  pious  Pedobaptists  to  their  fellowship,  to  what 
would  it  amount?  To  nothing  more  than  a  public  acknowledgment 
of  their  union  to  Christ  and  their  interest  in  his  benefits ;  and  as  they 
fully  acknowledge  both,  why  scruple  to  do  it  at  the  table  of  their  com- 
mon Lord.  Why  select  an  ordinance  designed  for  the  commemoration  of 
the  dying  love  of  the  Redeemer  as  the  signal  for  displaying  the  banners 
of  party ;  and  by  reviving  the  remembrance  of  differences  elsewhere 
consigned  to  oblivion,  give  the  utmost  publicity  to  dissensions  which 
are  the  reproach  of  the  church  and  the  triumph  of  the  world  ? 

The  only  colour  invented  to  disguise  this  glaring  inconsistency  is 
so  pure  a  logomachy,  that  it  is  difiicult  to  speak  of  it  with  becoming 
gravity.  They  remind  us,  forsooth,  that  the  expressions  of  Christian 
affection  in  praying  and  preaching  for  each  other  are  not  church  acts, 
as  though  there  were  some  magic  in  the  word  church  that  could  change 
the  nature  of  truth,  or  the  obligations  of  duty.  If  it  is  our  duty  to 
recognise  those  as  fellow-christians  who  are  really  such,  what  is  there 
in  the  idea  of  a  church  that  should  render  it  improper  there  ?  If  the 
church  is  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  tmth,"  it  is  the  proper  place  for 
the  fullest  disclosure  of  its  secrets ;  and  if  Christians  are  under  an 
obligation  to  love  each  other  with  a  pure  heart,  fervently,  its  organiza- 
tion can  never  have  been  designed  to  contract  the  heart,  by  confining 
the  movements  and  expressions  of  charity  within  narrower  limits. 
The  duty  of  churches  originates  in  that  of  the  individuals  of  which  they 
consist,  so  that  when  we  have  ascertained  the  sentiments  and  principles 
which  ought  to  actuate  the  Christian  in  his  private  capacity,  we  pos- 
sess the  standard  to  which  the  practice  of  churches  should  be  uniformly 
adjusted. 

Vol.  II.— P 


326  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

Nor  is  it  in  this  particular  only  that  the  persons  whose  opinions 
we  are  controverting  are  betrayed  into  lamentable  inconsistency. 
Their  concessions  on  another  branch  of  the  subject  lay  them  open  to 
the  same  imputation.  They  acknowledge  that  many  Pedobaptists 
stand  high  in  the  favour  of  God;  enjoy  intimate  communion  with  the 
Redeemer ;  and  would,  on  their  removal  hence,  be  instantaneously 
admitted  to  glory.  Now,  it  seems  the  suggestion  of  common  sense 
that  the  greater  includes  the  less,  that  they  who  have  a  title  to  the 
most  sublime  privileges  of  Christianity,  the  favour  of  God,  the  fellow- 
ship of  Christ,  and  the  hope  of  glory,  must  be  unquestionably  entitled 
to  that  ordinance  whose  sole  design  is '  to  prepare  us  for  the  perfect 
fruition  of  these  blessings.  To  suppose  it  possible  to  have  an  interes-t 
in  the  great  redemption  without  being  allowed  to  commemorate  it, 
that  he  may  possess  the  substance  Avho  is  denied  the  shadow,  and 
though  qualified  for  the  worship  of  heaven,  be  justly  debarred  from 
earthly  ordinances,  is  such  an  anomaly  as  cannot  fail  to  draw  reproba- 
tion on  the  system  of  which  it  is  the  necessary  consequence.  Men 
will,  ere  long,  tremble  at  the  thought  of  being  more  strict  than  Christ, 
more  fastidious  in  the  selection  of  the  members  of  the  church  militant 
than  he  is  in  choosing  the  members  of  the  church  triumphant. 

Hitherto  our  attention  has  been  occupied  in  stating  the  arguments  in 
favour  of  mixed  communion,  and  replying  to  the  objections  to  that 
practice.  It  is  but  justice  to  the  subject  and  to  the  reader,  before  we 
close  the  discussion,  to  touch  on  another  topic. 

In  every  inquiry  relating  to  Christian  duty,  our  first  concern  should 
undoubtedly  be  to  ascertain  the  will  of  the  Supreme  Legislator ;  but 
when  this  has  been  done  to  our  satisfaction,  we  may  be  allowed  to 
examine  the  practical  tendency  of  different  systems,  the  efl'ect  of  which 
will  be  to  confirm  our  preference  of  that  course  of  action  which  we 
have  found  most  consonant  with  the  oracles  of  truth.  We  are  far 
from  resting  the  merits  of  our  cause  on  the  basis  of  expedience ;  we 
are  aware  that  whoever  attempts  to  set  the  useful  in  opposition  to 
the  true  is  misled  by  false  appearances,  and  that  it  behooves  us,  on  all 
occasions,  fearless  of  consequences,  to  yield  to  the  force  of  evidence. 
But  having,  in  the  preceding  pages,  proved  (we  would  hope  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  reader)  that  the  practice  of  strict  communion  has  no 
support  from  Scripture  or  reason,  it  cannot  be  deemed  improper  briefly 
to  inquire  into  its  tendency. 

The  first  efi'ect  necessarily  resulting  from  it  is  a  powerful  prejudice 
against  the  party  which  adopts  it.  When  all  other  denominations  find 
themselves  lying  under  an  interdict,  and  treated  as  though  they  were 
heathens  or  publicans,  they  must  be  more  than  men  not  to  resent  it; 
or  if  they  regard  it  with  a  considerable  degree  of  apathy,  it  can  only 
be  ascribed  to  that  contempt  which  impotent  violence  is  so  apt  to 
inspire.  We  are  incompetent  judges  of  the  light  in  which  our  conduct 
appears  to  those  against  whom  it  is  directed,  but  the  more  frequently 
we  place  ourselves  in  their  situation  the  less  will  be  our  surprise  at 
the  indications  of  alienation  and  disgust  which  they  may  evince.  The 
very  appellation  of  Baptist,  together  with  the  tenets  by  which  it  is 


PARTY  COMMUNION.  227 

designated,  become  associated  with  the  idea  of  bigotry ;  nor  will  it 
permit  tlie  mind  which  entertains  that  prejudice  to  give  an  impartial 
attention  to  the  evidence  by  which  our  sentiments  are  supported.  With 
mingled  surprise  and  indignation  they  behold  us  making  pretensions 
which  no  other  denomination  of  Protestants  assumes,  placing  ourselves 
in  an  attitude  of  hostility  towards  the  whole  Christian  world,  and 
virtually  claiming  to  be  the  only  church  of  Christ  upon  earth. 
Fortified  as  it  is  by  its  claims  to  antiquity  and  univ^sality,  and  com- 
bining in  its  exterior  whatever  is  adapted  to  dazzle  the  imagination 
and  captivate  the  senses,  there  is  yet  nothing  in  the  Church  of  Rome 
that  has  excited  more  indignation  and  disgust  than  this  very  pretension. 
What  then  must  be  the  sensation  produced,  when,  in  the  absence  of  all 
these  advantages,  a  sect  comparatively  small  and  insignificant  erects 
itself  on  a  solitary  eminence,  from  whence  it  repels  the  approach  of 
all  other  Christians !  The  power  of  prejudice  to  arrest  the  progress 
of  inquiry  is  indeed  to  be  lamented ;  nothing  could  be  more  desirable 
than  that  every  opinion  should,  in  the  first  instance,  be  judged  of  by 
its  intrinsic  evidence,  without  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  persons 
who  embrace  it ;  but  the  strength  and  independence  of  mind  requisite 
to  such  an  effort  is  rather  to  be  admired  than  expected.  There  are 
few  who  enter  on  the  investigation  of  theological  questions  in  that 
elevated  state ;  secret  antipathies  or  predilections  will  be  sure  to  instil 
their  venom,  and  obscure  the  perception  of  truth  and  the  suggestions 
of  reason. 

By  the  stern  rejection  of  the  members  of  all  other  denominations 
until  they  have  embraced  our  distinguishing  tenets,  what  do  we  pro- 
pose to  effect — to  intimidate  or  to  convince  1  We  can  do  neither.  To 
intimidate  is  impossible,  while  there  are  -others  far  more  numerous 
than  ourselves  ready  to  receive  them  with  open  arms.  The  hope  of 
producing  conviction  by  such  an  expedient  is  equally  groundless  and 
chimerical,  since  conviction  is  the  result  of  evidence,  and  no  light 
whatever  can  be  pretended  to  be  conveyed  by  interdicting  their  com- 
munion, unless  it  be  that  it  manifests  our  intolerance.  We  propose  to 
extirpate  an  error,  and  we  plant  a  prejudice  ;  and  instead  of  attempting 
to  soften  and  conciliate  the  minds  of  our  opponents,  we  inflict  a  stigma. 
Professing  serious  concern  that  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  as  it  was 
practised  in  the  first  ages,  is  fallen  into  neglect,  we  attempt  to  revive 
an  unpopular  rite,  by  a  mode  of  procedure  which,  without  the  remotest 
tendency  towards  the  removal  of  error  or  the  elucidation  of  truth, 
answers  no  other  purpose  than  to  make  ourselves  unpopular. 

By  this  preposterous  conduct,  we  do  all  in  our  power  to  place  our 
Pedobaptist  brethren  beyond  the  reach  of  conviction.  Since  it  is 
unreasonable  to  expect,  however  attractive  the  ministrj-,  that  a  pious 
Pedobaptist  will  statedly  attend  where  he  must  despair  of  ever  becoming 
a  member,  and  of  enjoying  the  privileges  to  which  every  serious  per- 
son is  supposed  to  aspire ;  he  attaches  himself,  as  a  necessary  conse- 
quence, to  a  connexion  in  which  there  is  no  such  impediment,  but 
where  he  is  certain  of  hearing  nothing  but  what  will  foster  his  preju- 
dices and  confirm  his  error.     Thus  he  is  excluded  from  the  only 

P2 


228  CHRISTIAN  IN  OPPOSITION  TO 

connexion  where  the  arguments  for  adiih  baptism  are  stated,  and  is 
exposed  to  the  constant  operation  of  an  opposite  species  of  instruction. 
The  practice  which  we  are  reprobating  is  nearly  equivalent  to  an 
inscription  over  the  door,  Let  none  but  Baptists  enter  within  these 
walls — an  admirable  expedient,  truly,  for  diffusing  the  Baptist  senti- 
ments ;  about  as  rational  as  to  send  a  man  from  London  to  Constanti- 
nople to  study  the  evidences  of  Christianity ! 

Mr.  Kinghorn  is  delighted  with  this  separation  of  the  Baptists  from 
other  denominations  in  the  offices  of  devotion,  avowing  it  as  his  opin- 
ion that  no  Pedobaptist  can  without  great  impropriety  statedly  attend 
the  ministry  of  one  of  our  denomination.  If  we  may  judge  from  what 
he  has  written  on  this  subject,  he  appears  less  anxious  to  promote  and 
extend  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the  Baptists,  than  to  preserve  inviolate 
their  sacred  seclusion  and  solitude.  His  sentiments  on  this  subject 
will  probably  remind  the  poetical  reader  of  Gray's  beautiful  description 
of  the  bird  of  night,  which 

■•  "  does  to  the  moon  complain 

Of  such  as,  wandering  near  her  secret  bowers, 
Molest  her  ancient,  solitary  reign.'' 

Whatever  his  intention  may  be,  it  must  be  obvious  that  by  the  policy 
he  recommends,  of  keeping  the  Baptists  and  Pedobaptists  entirely 
separated  from  each  other,  even  as  hearers  of  the  word,  he  is  strength- 
ening the  barriers  of  party,  building  up  a  middle  wall  of  partition,  and 
by  cutting  off  the  channels  of  communication  and  the  means  of  con- 
viction, resigning  both  to  the  entire  and  unmitigated  operation  of  their 
respective  systems.  Is  it  possible  to  imagine  any  thing  more  calcu- 
lated to  stifle  inquiry,  to  render  the  public  mind  stationary,  and  to  per- 
petuate our  divisions  to  the  end  of  the  world  1  From  him  who  was 
really  solicitous  to  extend  the  triumphs  of  truth  we  should  expect 
nothing  would  be  more  abhorrent  than  such  a  system  ;  he  surely  would 
leave  nothing  unattempted  to  break  down  the  rampart  of  prejudice ; 
and  by  making  the  nearest  approaches  to  his  opponents  consistent 
with  truth,  avail  himself  of  all  the  advantages  which  a  generous  con- 
fidence seldom  fails  to  bestow,  for  insinuating  his  sentiments  and 
promoting  his  views. 

Of  the  tendency  of  mixed  communion  to  promote  a  more  candid 
inquiry  into  our  principles,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  doubt ;  whether  it 
would  have  the  effect  of  rapidly  extending  the  Baptist  denomination 
as  such  is  less  certain.  For  were  that  practice  universally  to  prevail, 
the  mixture  of  Baptists  and  Pedobaptists  in  Christian  societies  would 
probably  ere  long  be  such,  that  the  appellation  of  Baptist  might  be 
found  not  so  properly  applicable  to  churches  as  to  individuals,  while 
some  more  comprehensive  term  might  possibly  be  employed  to  dis- 
criminate the  views  of  collective  bodies.  But  what  then  ?  Are  we 
contending  for  names,  or  for  things  1  If  the  effect  of  a  more  liberal 
system  shall  be  found  to  increase  the  number  of  those  who  return  to 
the  primitive  practice  of  baptism,  and  thus  follow  the  Lamb  whither- 
soever he  goeth,  he  must  be  possessed  of  a  deplorable  imbecility  and 


PARTY  COMMUNION.  229 

narrowness  of  mind  who  will  lament  the  disappearance  of  a  name, 
especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  whenever  just  views  on  this 
subject  shall  become  universal,  the  name  by  which  we  are  at  present 
distinguished  will  necessarily  cease.  An  honest  solicitude  for  the 
restoration  of  a  divine  ordinance  to  its  primitive  simplicity  and  purity 
is  not  merely  innocent,  but  meritorious  ;  but  if  the  ultimate  consequence 
of  such  an  improvement  should  be  to  merge  the  appellation  of  a  party 
in  that  which  is  derived  from  the  divine  Founder  of  our  religion,  it  is 
an  event  which  none  but  a  bigot  will  regret. 

It  were  well,  however,  if  the  evil  resulting  from  the  practice  of  strict 
communion  were  confined  to  its  effect  on  other  denominations.  If  I 
am  not  much  mistaken,  it  exerts  a  pernicious  influence  on  our  own. 
Were  it  consistent  with  propriety,  it  would  be  easy  to  adduce  excep- 
tions ;  individuals  have  come  within  the  narrow  range  of  my  own 
observation  whose  temperament  has  been  so  happy,  that  they  have 
completely  surmounted  the  natural  tendency  of  their  principles, 
combining  the  greatest  candour  towards  Pedobaptists  with  a  consci- 
entious refusal  of  their  communion.  Such  instances  however  must, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  be  rare.  Generally  speaking,  the  adoption  of  a 
narrow  and  contracted  theory  will  issue  in  a  narrow  and  contracted 
mind.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  that  a  habit  of  treating  all  other 
Christians  as  aliens  from  the  fold  of  Christ,  and  unworthy  of  a 
participation  of  the  privileges  of  his  church,  can  be  generally  un- 
accompanied with  an  asperity  of  temper,  a  proneness  to  doubt  the 
sincerity,  to  censure  the  motives,  and  depreciate  the  virtues  of  those 
whom  they  are  accustomed  to  treat  with  so  much  rigour.  Conceiving 
themselves  to  be  a  highly  privileged  class,  as  the  only  legitimate  mem- 
bers of  his  church,  they  are  almost  inevitably  exposed  to  think  more 
highly  of  themselves  than  they  ought  to  think ;  and  founding  their 
separation,  not  on  that  which  distinguishes  the  followers  of  Christ 
from  the  world,  but  on  a  point  in  which  Christians  dissent  from  each 
other,  they  are  naturally  tempted  to  attach  superlative  importance  to 
the  grounds  of  dift'erence. 

The  history  of  the  present  controversy  affords  a  melancholy  con- 
firmation of  these  remarks ;  for  the  few  who  have  ventured  to  appear 
on  the  liberal  side  of  the  question  have,  for  the  most  part,  been  assailed 
by  ungenerous  insinuations  and  odious  personalities.  Their  claim  to 
be  considered  as  Baptists  is  very  reluctantly  conceded,  and  the  part 
they  have  taken  has  been  imputed  to  the  love  of  popularity,  or  to 
some  still  more  unworthy  motive.  Some  churches,  in  their  zeal  for 
strict  communion,  have  even  lost  sight  of  their  own  principles,  and 
substituted  the  doctrine  opposed  in  these  pages  as  a  term  of  admission, 
instead  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism.  Others  have  refused  the  privilege 
of  occasional  communion  to  such  as  have  been  known  to  sit  down 
with  Pedobaptists  at  the  Lord's  table. 

Leaving,  however,  to  those  to  whom  it  may  be  more  grateful  the  un- 
welcome office  of  exposing  the  infirmities  of  their  brethren,  let  me 
close  this  subject  by  one  more  remark.  In  addition  to  all  the  other 
reasons  for  retracing  our  steps,  we  may  with  .great  propriety  allege 


230  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNION. 

the  spirit  of  the  times,  the  genius  of  the  age,  distinguished  as  it  is, 
beyond  all  former  example,  by  the  union  of  Christians  in  the  promotion 
of  a  common  cause,  and  their  merging  their  minor  differences  in  the 
cultivation  of  great  principles  and  the  pursuit  of  great  objects.  Instead 
of  confining  themselves,  each  to  the  defence  of  his  own  citadel,  they  are 
sallying  forth  in  all  directions,  in  order  to  make  a  povi^erful  and  com- 
bined attack  on  the  kingdom  of  darkness.  The  church  of  Christ,  no 
longer  the  scene  of  intestine  warfare  among  the  several  denominations 
into  which  it  is  cantoned  and  divided,  presents  the  image  of  a  great 
empire,  composed  of  distant  but  not  hostile  provinces,  prepared  to  send 
forth  its  combatants,  at  the  command  of  its  invisible  sovereign,  to 
invade  the  dominions  of  Satan  and  subdue  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
The  weapons  of  its  warfare  have  already  made  themselves  felt  in  the 
East  and  in  the  West ;  and  wherever  its  banner  is  unfurled,  it  gathers 
around  it,  without  distinction  of  name  or  sect,  "  the  called,  the  chosen, 
the  faithful,"  who,  at  the  heart-thrilling  voice  of  Him  whose  "  vesture  is 
dipped  in  blood,"  and  who  goes  forth  "  conquering  and  to  conquer," 
rush  to  the  field,  unmindful  of  every  distinction  but  that  of  his  friends 
and  foes,  and  too  eager  for  the  combat  to  ask  any  other  question  than 
"  Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side  ?  Who  ?"  And  is  it  possible,  after  mingling 
thus  their  counsels,  their  efforts,  their  prayers,  and  standing  side  by 
side  in  the  thickest  of  the  conflict,  in  coming  up  "  to  the  help  of  the 
Lord,  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty,"  for  them  to  turn 
their  backs  on  each  other,  and  refuse  to  unite  at  that  table  which  is 
covered  with  the  memorials  of  his  love  and  the  fruits  of  his  victory  1 
No.  As  we  hope  when  the  warfare  of  time  is  accomplished,  and  these 
mortal  tabernacles  in  which  it  is  performed  shall  be  dissolved,  to 
celebrate  a  never-ending  feast  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
and  the  whole  army  of  the  faithful  of  every  age,  from  every  clime,  and 
from  every  tongue,  let  us  begin  by  feasting  together  here,  to  present  a 
specimen  of  that  harmony  and  love  Avhich  are  at  once  the  element  and 
the  earnest  of  eternal  felicity. 


ARTICLES 


PUBLISHED   IN 


THE    ECLECTIC    REVIEW. 


REVIEW 

OF 

FOSTER'S   ESSAYS. 


Essays,  in  a  Series  of  Letters,  on  the  following  Subjects : — On  a  Man's 
writing  Memoirs  of  Himself;  On  Decision  of  Character ;  On  the 
Application  of  the  Epithet  Romantic ;  On  some  of  the  Causes  by 
which  Evangelical  Religion  has  been  rendered  less  acceptable  to  Per- 
sons of  cultivated  Taste.  By  John  Foster.  2  vols.  12mo.  1805. 
1  vol.  8vo.  pp.  458.     Seventh  Edition,  1823. 

The  authors  who  have  written  on  human  nature  may  be  properly 
distinguished  into  two  classes,  the  metaphysical  and  the  popular.  The 
former  contemplate  man  in  the  abstract ;  and,  neglecting  the  different 
shades  of  character  and  peculiarities  of  temper  by  which  mankind  are 
diversified,  confine  their  attention  to  those  fundamental  principles  which 
pervade  the  whole  species.  In  attempting  to  explore  the  secrets  of 
mental  organization,  they  assume  nothing  more  for  a  basis  than  a  mere 
susceptibility  of  impression,  whence  they  labour  to  deduce  the  multi- 
plied powers  of  the  human  mind.  The  light  in  which  they  choose  to 
consider  man  in  their  researches  is  not  that  of  a  being  possessed 
already  of  the  exercise  of  reason  and  agitated  by  various  sentiments 
and  passions,  but  simply  as  capable  of  acquiring  them ;  and  their 
object  is,  by  an  accurate  investigation  of  the  laws  which  regulate  the 
connexion  of  the  mind  with  the  external  universe,  to  discover  in  what 
manner  they  are  actually  acquired.  They  endeavour  to  trace  back  every 
mental  appearance  to  its  source.  Considering  the  powers  and  principles 
of  the  mind  as  a  complicated  piece  of  machinery,  they  attempt  to  discover 
the  primum  mobile,  or,  in  other  words,  that  primary  law,  that  ultimate 
fact  which  is  sufliciently  comprehensive  to  account  for  every  other  move- 
ment. This  attention  to  the  internal  operations  of  the  -fumd,  with  a 
view  to  analyze  its  principles,  is  one  of  the  distincJions  of  modern 
times.  Among  the  ancients  scarcely  any  thing  of  i^is  sort  was  known. 
Comprehensive  theories  and  subtile  disquisitions  are  not  unfrequent  in 
their  writings ;  but  they  are  chiefly  employed  for  the  illustration  of 
different  modes  of  virtue  and  the  establishment  of  different  ideas  of  the 
supreme  good.  Their  most  abstracted  speculations  had  almost  always 
a  practical  tendency.     The  schoolmen,  indeed,  were  deeply  immersed 


234  REVIEW  OF 

in  metaphysical  speculations.  They  fatigued  their  readers  in  the  pur- 
suit of  endless  abstractions  and  distinctions ;  but  the  design,  even  of 
these  writers,  seems  rather  to  have  been  accurately  to  arrange  and 
define  the  objects  of  thought  than  to  explore  the  mental  faculties  them- 
selves. The  nature  of  particular  and  universal  ideas,  time,  space, 
infinity,  together  with  the  mode  of  existence  to  be  ascribed  to  the  Su- 
preme Being,  chiefly  engaged  the  attention  of  the  mightiest  minds  in 
the  middle  ages.  Acute  in  the  highest  degree,  and  endued  with  a  won- 
derful patience  of  thinking,  they  yet,  by  a  mistaken  direction  of  their 
powers,  wasted  themselves  in  endless  logomachies,  and  displayed  more 
of  a  teasing  subtlety  than  of  philosophical  depth.  They  chose  rather 
to  strike  into  the  dark  and  intricate  by-paths  of  metaphysical  science 
than  to  pursue  a  career  of  useful  discovery :  and  as  their  disquisitions 
were  neither  adorned  by  taste  nor  reared  on  a  basis  of  extensive  know- 
ledge, they  gradually  fell  into  neglect  when  juster  views  in  philosophy 
made  their  appearance.  Still  they  will  remain  a  mighty  monument  of 
the  utmost  which  the  mind  of  man  can  accomplish  in  the  field  of 
abstraction.  If  the  metaphysician  does  not  find  in  the  schoolmen  the 
materials  of  his  work,  he  will  perceive  the  study  of  their  writings  to  be 
of  excellent  benefit  in  sharpening  his  tools.  They  will  aid  his  acute- 
ness,  though  they  may  fail  to  enlarge  his  knowledge. 

When  the  inductive  and  experimental  philosophy  recommended  by 
Bacon  had,  in  the  hands  of  Boyle  and  Newton,  led  to  such  brilliant 
discoveries  in  the  investigation  of  matter,  an  attempt  was  soon  made 
to  transfer  the  same  method  of  proceeding  to  the  mind.  Hobbes,  a 
man  justly  infamous  for  his  impiety,  but  of  extraordinary  penetration, 
first  set  the  example ;  which  was  not  long  after  followed  by  Locke, 
who  was  more  indebted  to  his  predecessor  than  he  had  the  candour  to 
acknowledge.  His  celebrated  Essay  has  been  generally  considered 
as  the  established  code  of  metaphysics.  The  opinions  and  discoveries 
of  this  great  man  have  since  been  enriched  by  large  accessions,  and, 
on  some  points  corrected  and  amended  by  the  labours  of  Berkeley, 
Hume,  Reid,  and  a  multitude  of  other  writers.  Still  there  seems  to  be 
a  principle  of  mortality  inherent  in  metaphysical  science,  which  sooner 
or  later  impairs  the  reputation  of  its  most  distinguished  adepts.  It  is 
a  circumstance  worthy  of  remark,  that  there  has  never  been  a  reputa- 
tion of  this  kind  which  has  continued  with  undiminished  lustre  through 
the  revolutions  of  a  century.  The  fame  of  Locke  is  visibly  on  the 
decline ;  the  speculations  of  Malebranche  are  scarcely  heard  of  in 
France ;  and  Kant,  the  greatest  metaphysical  name  on  the  continent, 
sways  a  doubtful  sceptre  amid  a  host  of  opponents.  It  is  not  our 
intention  to  inquire  at  large  into  the  reason  of  the  transitory  fame  ac- 
quired by  this  ckss  of  writers.  Whether  it  be  that  the  science  itself 
rests  on  a  precario«\s  foundation ;  that  its  discoveries  can  never  be 
brought  to  a  decisive  te&r ;  that  it  is  too  remote  from  the  business  of 
life  to  be  generally  interestmg  ;  that  it  does  not  compensate  by  its  use 
for  its  defects  in  the  fascinations  of  pleasure  ;  and  that  it  is  not,  like  the 
intricacies  of  law,  interwoven  with  the  institutions  of  society  :  the  fact 
itself  is  unquestionable.     He  who  aspires  to  a  reputation  that  shall 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS. 


235 


survive  the  vicissitudes  of  opinion  and  of  time,  must  think  of  some  other 
character  than  that  of  a  metaphysician. 

Grand  and  imposing  in  its  appearance,  it  seems  to  lay  claim  to  uni- 
versal empire,  and  to  supply  the  measures  and  the  criteria  of  all  other 
knowledge  ;  but  it  resembles  in  its  progress  the  conquests  of  a  Sesostris 
and  a  Bacchus,  who  overran  kingdoms  and  provinces  with  ease,  but 
made  no  permanent  settlements,  and  soon  left  no  trace  of  their 
achievements. 

The  case  is  very  different  with  the  popular  writers,  who,  without 
attempting  to  form  a  theory  or  to  trace  their  first  elements,  the  vast 
assemblage  of  passions  and  principles  which  enter  into  the  composition 
of  man,  are  satisfied  with  describing  him  as  he  is.  These  writers 
exhibit  characters,  paint  manners,  and  display  human  nature  in  those 
natural  and  afiecting  lights  under  which  it  will  always  appear  to  the 
eye  of  an  acute  and  feeling  observer.  Without  staying  to  inquire  why 
it  is  that  men  think,  feel,  reason,  remember, — are  attracted  by  some 
objects  or  repelled  by  others, — they  take  them  as  they  are,  and  delin- 
eate the  infinitely  various  modifications  and  appearances  assumed  by 
our  essential  nature.  From  the  general  mass  of  human  passions  and 
manners  they  detach  such  portions  as  they  suppose  will  admit  of  the 
most  beautiful  illustrations,  or  afibrd  the  most  instructive  lessons.  Next 
to  a  habit  of  self-reflection,  accompanied  with  an  attentive  survey  of 
real  life,  writers  of  this  kind  are  the  best  guides  in  the  acquisition  of 
that  most  important  branch  of  knowledge,  an  acquaintance  with  man- 
kind. As  they  profess  to  consider  human  nature  under  some  particular 
aspect,  their  views  are  necessarily  more  limited  than  those  of  meta- 
physical writers  ;  but  if  they  are  less  extensive,  they  are  more  certain  ; 
if  they  occupy  less  ground,  they  cnltivale  it  better.  In  the  language 
of  Bacon,  "  they  come  home  to  men's  business  and  bosom."  As  they 
aim  at  the  delineation  of  living  nature,  they  can  never  deviate  far  from 
truth  and  reality  without  becoming  ridiculous  ;  while  for  the  fidelity  of 
their  representations  they  appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  the 
dictates  of  which  they  do  little  more  than  imbody  and  adorn.  The 
system  of  Locke  or  of  Hartley,  it  is  possible  to  conceive,  may  be 
exploded  by  the  prevalence  of  a  different  theory  ;  but  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose  that  the  remarks  on  life  and  manners  contained  in  the  writings 
of  Addison  or  of  Johnson  can  ever  be  discredited  by  a  future  moralist. 
In  the  formation  of  a  theory,  more  especially  in  matters  so  subtile  and 
complicated  as  those  which  relate  to  the  mind,  the  sources  of  error  are 
various.  When  a  chain  of  reasoning  consists  of  many  links,  a  failure 
of  connexion  in  any  part  will  produce  a  mass  of  error  in  the  result, 
proportioned  to  the  length  to  which  it  is  extended.  In  a  complicated 
combination,  if  the  enumeration  of  particulars  in  the  outset  is  not  com- 
plete, the  mistake  is  progressive  and  incurable.  In  the  ideal  philosophy 
of  Locke,  for  example,  if  the  sources  of  sensation  are  not  sufficiently 
explored,  or  if  there  be,  as  some  of  the  profoundest  thinkers  have  sus- 
pected, other  sources  of  ideas  than  those  of  sensation,  the  greater  part 
of  his  system  falls  to  the  ground.  The  popular  writers  of  whom  we 
have  been  speaking  are  not  exposed  to  such  dangers.     It  is  possible, 


236  REVIEW  OF 

indeed,  that  many  particular  views  may  be  erroneous ;  but  as  their 
attention  is  continually  turned  to  living  nature,  provided  they  be  pos- 
sessed of  competent  talents,  their  general  delineations  cannot  fail  of 
being  distinguished  by  fidelity  and  truth.  While  a  few  speculative  men 
amuse  themselves  with  discussing  the  comparative  merits  of  different 
metaphysical  systems,  these  are  the  writers  whose  sentiments,  con- 
veyed through  innumerable  channels,  form  the  spirit  of  the  age  ;  nor  is 
it  to  be  doubled  that  the  Spectator  and  the  Rambler  have  imparted  a 
stronger  impulse  to  the  public  mind  than  all  the  metaphysical  systems 
in  the  world.  On  this  account  we  are  highly  gratified  when  we  meet 
with  a  writer  who,  to  a  vein  of  profound  and  original  thought,  together 
with  just  views  of  religion  and  of  morals,  joins  the  talent  of  recom- 
mending his  ideas  by  the  graces  of  imagination  and  the  powers  of 
eloquence.  Such  a  writer  we  have  the  happiness  of  reviewing  at 
present.  Mr.  Foster's  name  is  probably  new  to  most  of  our  readers ; 
but  if  we  may  judge  from  the  production  before  us,  he  cannot  long  be 
concealed  from  the  notice  and  applause  of  the  literary  world.  In  an 
age  of  mediocrity,  when  the  writing  of  books  has  become  almost  a 
mechanical  art,  and  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  best  models  has 
diffused  taste  and  diminished  genius,  it  is  impossible  to  peruse  an  author 
who  displays  so  great  original  powers  without  a  degree  of  surprise. 
We  are  ready  to  inquire  by  what  peculiar  felicity  he  was  enabled  to 
desert  the  trammels  of  custom,  to  break  the  spell  by  which  others  feel 
themselves  bound,  and  to  maintain  a  career  so  perfectly  uncontrolled 
and  independent.  A  cast  of  thought  original  and  sublime,  an  unlimited 
command  of  imagery,  a  style  varied,  vigorous,  and  bold,  are  some  of 
the  distinguishing  features  of  these  very  singular  essays.  We  add 
with  peculiar  satisfaction,  that  ihey  breathe  the  spirit  of  piety  and  benevo- 
lence, and  bear  the  most  evident  indications  of  a  heart  deeply  attached 
to  scriptural  truths.  Though  Mr.  F.  has  thought  fit  to  give  to  his  work 
the  title  of  "  Essays,  in  a  Series  of  Letters"  the  reader  must  not  expect 
any  thing  in  the  epistolary  style.  They  were  written,  the  author 
informs  us,  in  letters  to  a  friend,  but  with  a  view  to  publication  ;  and  in 
their  distinct  development  of  a  subject  and  fulness  of  illustration,  they 
resemble  regular  dissertations  rather  than  familiar  epistles.  We  could 
have  wished,  indeed,  that  he  had  suppressed  the  title  of  Letters,  as  it 
may  excite  in  the  reader  an  expectation  of  colloquial  ease  and  grace, 
which  will  not  be  gratified  in  the  perusal.  A  little  attention  to  this 
circumstance,  though  it  might  have  impaired  the  regularity  of  their 
method,  would  have  rendered  them  more  fascinating.  The  subjects 
appear  to  us  well  chosen,  sufficiently  uncommon  to  afford  scope  for 
original  remarks,  and  important  enough  to  call  forth  the  exertions  of 
the  strongest  powers.  They  are  the  following :  1.  On  a  Man's  writing 
Memoirs  of  himself ;  2.  On  Decision  of  Character  ;  3.  On  the  Appli- 
cation of  the  Epithet  Romantic  ;  4.  On  some  of  the  Causes  by  vi^hich 
Evangelical  Religion  has  been  rendered  less  acceptable  to  Persons  of 
cultivated  Taste. 

We  shall  endeavour  to  give  our  readers  an  idea  of  the  general  design 
of  each  of  these  essays  ;  and  to  enable  them,  by  a  few  extracts,  to 
judge  of  the  manner  in  which  that  design  is  executed. 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS.  237 

In  the  first  essay,  the  author  expatiates  at  large  on  the  influence 
of  external  events  in  the  formation  of  character.  This  influence  he 
traces  to  four  sources  :---instruction,  companionship,  reading,  and 
attention  to  the  state  and  manners  of  mankind. 

Among  the  many  objects  calculated  to  form  the  character  and 
impress  the  heart,  Mr.  F.  enumerates  natural  scenery ;  at  the  same 
time  deploring  that  want  of  fancy  and  sensibility  which  often  renders 
it  productive  of  so  hltle  eflect.  The  passage  in  which  he  adverts  to 
this  subject  is  so  beautiful,  that  we  cannot  prevail  on  ourselves  to 
withhold  it  from  the  reader.  He  will  see  at  once  that  the  writer  has 
viewed  nature  with  the  eye  of  a  poet,  and  has  deeply  imbibed  the 
delicious  enchantment  which  he  so  eloquently  describes. 

"  It  might  be  supposed  that  the  scenes  of  nature,  an  amazing  assem- 
blage of  phenomena,  if  their  effect  were  not  lost  through  familiarity, 
would  have  a  powerful  influence  on  all  opening  minds,  and  transfuse 
into  the  internal  economy  of  ideas  and  sentiment  something  of  a 
character  and  a  colour  correspondent  to  the  beauty,  vicissitude,  and 
grandeur  which  continually  press  on  the  senses.  On  minds  of  genius 
they  often  have  this  effect ;  and  Beattie's  Minstrel  may  be  as  just  as 
it  is  a  fascinating  description  of  such  a  spirit.  But  on  the  greatest 
number  this  influence  operates  feebly ;  you  will  not  see  the  process  in 
children,  nor  the  result  in  mature  persons.  The  charms  of  nature  are 
objects  only  of  sight  and  hearing,  not  of  sensibility  and  imagination ; 
and  even  the  sight  and  hearing  do  not  receive  impressions  sufiiciently 
distinct  or  forcible  for  clear  recollection ;  it  is  not,  therefore,  strange 
that  these  impressions  seldom  go  so  much  deeper  than  the  senses  as 
to  awaken  pensiveness  or  enthusiasm,  and  fill  the  mind  with  an  interior 
permanent  scenery  of  beautiful  images  at  its  own  command.  This 
defect  of  fancy  and  sensibility  is  unfortunate  amid  a  creation  infinitely 
rich  with  grand  and  beautiful  objects,  which,  imparting  something  more 
than  images  to  a  mind  adapted  and  habituated  to  converse  with  nature, 
inspire  an  exquisite  sentiment  that  seems  like  the  emanation  of  a 
spirit  residing  in  them.  It  is  unfortunate,  I  have  thought  within  these 
few  minutes,  while  looking  out  on  one  of  the  most  enchanting  nights 
of  the  most  interesting  season  of  the  year,  and  hearing  the  voices  of  a 
company  of  persons,  to  whom  I  can  perceive  that  this  soft  and  solemn 
shade  over  the  earth,  the  calm  sky,  the  beautiful  stripes  of  cloud,  the 
stars,  and  waning  moon  just  risen,  are  things  not  in  the  least  more 
interesting  than  the  walls,  ceiling,  and  candlelight  of  a  room." — Vol. 
I.  pp.  26,  27.     Pp.  22,  23,  Seventh  Edition. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  essay,  in  tracing  the  steps  by  which  some 
have  arrived  at  the  last  stage  of  daring  impiety,  the  denial  of  a  God, 
the  author  evinces,  in  a  masterly  manner,  the  presumption  of  the 
atheist,  and  places  the  extreme  absurdity  of  pretending  to  demonstrate 
the  non-existence  of  a  Deity  in  a  light  in  which  we  do  not  remember 
to  have  seen  it  exhibited.  Speaking  of  a  pretended  heroism  attached 
to  atheistic  impiety,  he  adds : 

"  But,  indeed,  it  is  heroism  no  longer,  if  he  knows  that  there  is  no 
God.     The  wonder  then  turns  on  the  great  process  by  which  a  man 


238  REVIEW  OF 

could  grow  to  the  immense  intelligence  that  can  know  that  there  is 
no  God.  What  ages  and  what  lights  are  requisite  for  this  attain- 
ment !  This  intelligence  involves  the  very  attributes  of  divinity,  while 
a  God  is  denied.  For,  unless  this  man  is  omnipresent,  unless  he  is 
at  this  moment  in  every  place  in  the  universe,  he  cannot  know  but 
there  may  be  in  some  place  manifestations  of  a  Deity  by  which  even 
he  would  be  overpowered.  If  he  does  not  know  absolutely  every 
agent  in  the  universe,  the  one  that  he  does  not  know  may  be  God. 
If  he  is  not  himself  the  chief  agent  in  the  universe,  and  does  not  know 
what  is  so,  that  which  is  so  may  be  God.  If  he  is  not  in  absolute 
possession  of  all  the  propositions  that  constitute  universal  truth,  the  one 
which  he  wants  may  be  that  there  is  a  God.  If  he  cannot  with 
certainty  assign  the  cause  of  all  that  exists,  that  cause  may  be  a  God. 
If  he  does  not  know  every  thing  that  has  been  done  in  the  immea- 
surable ages  that  are  past,  some  things  may  have  been  done  by  a 
God.  Thus,  unless  he  knows  all  things,  that  is,  precludes  another 
Deity,  by  being  one  himself,  he  cannot  know  that  the  Being  whose 
existence  he  rejects  does  not  exist.  But  he  must  knoio  that  he  does 
not  exist,  else  he  deserves  equal  contempt  and  compassion  for  the 
temerity  with  which  he  firmly  avows  his  rejection,  and  acts  accordingly." 
— Vol.  I.  pp.  60-62.     Pp.  48,  49,  Seventh  Edition. 

The  next  essay,  On  Decision  of  Character,  appears  to  us  superior 
to  the  former.  The  subject  is  pursued  with  greater  regularity,  the 
conceptions  are  more  profound,  and  the  style  is  more  chaste  and 
classical.  After  placing  in  strong  contrast  the  features  of  a  decisive 
and  of  an  irresolute  character,  he  proceeds  to  analyze  the  elements 
of  which  the  former  is  composed.  Among  these,  he  assigns  the  first 
place  to  a  firm  confidence  in  our  own  judgment ;  which,  he  justly 
observes,  notwithstanding  the  general  disposition  of  mankind  to 
overrate  their  powers,  is  no  common  attainment.  With  those  who 
are  most  disposed  to  think  highly  of  their  own  abilities,  it  is  common, 
when  they  arrive  at  the  moment  of  action,  to  distrust  their  judgment ; 
and,  as  the  author  beautifully  expresses  it,  "  their  mind  seems  all  at 
once  placed  in  a  misty  vacuity,  where  it  reaches  round  on  all  sides, 
and  finds  nothing  to  lay  hold  of."  The  next  ingredient  essential  to 
decision  of  character  is  a  state  of  cogent  feeling,  an  intense  ardour 
of  mind,  precluding  indifference  and  delay. 

In  addition  to  these  qualities,  courage  is  required,  without  which,  it 
is  obvious  that  resolutions  the  most  maturely  formed,  are  liable  to 
vanish  at  the  first  breath  of  opposition.  In  the  remaining  part  of  the 
essay,  Mr.  F.  illustrates  the  influence  of  several  circumstances  of  an 
external  nature,  which  tend  to  form  or  to  augment  the  quality  of  which 
he  has  been  treating.  The  principal  of  these  are  opposition,  desertion^ 
and  success.  It  would  prolong  this  article  too  much  to  attempt  to 
follow  the  author  in  these  particulars :  suffice  it  to  remark,  that  under 
each  of  them  will  be  found  many  just  and  important  observations. 
He  concludes  with  briefly  recommending  a  discipline  conducive  to  the 
attainment  of  a  decisive  character.  He  particularly  insists  on  the 
propriety  of  inuring  the  mind  to  a  habit  of  reasoning ;  and  that  not  in 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS.  239 

a  superficial  and  desultory  manner,  but  by  steadily  following  the  train 
till  we  reach  a  legitimate  conclusion. 

We  cannot  dismiss  this  part  of  the  work  without  presenting  our 
readers  with  an  extract  from  the  character  of  Howard,  whose  virtues 
have  been  emlilazoned  by  the  gorgeous  eloquence  of  Burke  ;  but  we 
are  mistaken  if  tliey  have  ever  been  painted  in  a  more  masterly  manner 
than  in  the  following  portrait : — 

"In  this  distinction  (^decisio7i)  no  man  ever  exceeded,  for  instance,  or 
ever  will  exceed,  the  late  illustrious  Howard.  The  energy  of  his  deter- 
mination was  so  great,  that  if,  instead  of  being  habitual,  it  had  been 
shown  only  for  a  short  time  on  particular  occasions,  it  would  have 
appeared  a  vehement  impetuosity ;  but  by  being  unintermitted  it  had 
an  equability  of  manner,  which  scarcely  appeared  to  exceed  the  tone 
of  a  calm  constancy,  it  was  so  totally  the  reverse  of  any  thing  like 
turbulence  or  agitation.  It  was  the  calmness  of  an  intensity,  kept 
uniform  by  the  nature  of  the  human  mind  forbidding  it  to  be  more,  and 
by  the  character  of  the  individual  forbidding  it  to  be  less.  The  habitual 
passion  of  his  mind  was  a  measure  of  feeling  almost  equal  to  the 
temporary  extremes  and  paroxysms  of  common  minds :  as  a  great 
river  in  its  customary  state  is  equal  to  a  small  or  moderate  one  when 
swollen  to  a  torrent.  The  moment  of  finishing  his  plans  in  delibera- 
tion, and  commencing  them  in  action,  was  tlie  same.  I  wonder  what 
must  have  been  the  amount  of  that  bribe,  in  emolument  or  pleasure, 
that  would  have  detained  him  a  \vuf;k  inactive  after  their  final  adjust- 
ment. The  law  which  carries  water  down  a  declivity  was  not  more 
unconquerable  and  invariable  than  the  determination  of  his  feelings 
towards  the  main  object.  The  importance  of  this  object  held  his 
faculties  in  a  state  of  excitement  which  was  too  rigid  to  be  affected 
by  ligliter  interests,  and  on  which,  therefore,  the  beauties  of  nature 
and  of  art  had  no  power.  He  had  no  leisure  feeling  which  he  could 
spare,  to  be  diverted  among  the  innumerable  varieties  of  the  extensive 
scene  which  he  traversed  ;  all  liis  subordinate  feelings  lost  their  separate 
existence  and  operation,  by  falling  into  the  grand  one.  There  have 
not  been  wanting  trivial  minds  to  mark  this  as  a  fault  in  his  character. 
But  the  mere  men  of  taste  ought  to  be  silent  respecting  such  a  man 
as  Howard ;  he  is  above  their  sphere  of  judgment.  The  invisible 
spirits  who  fulfil  their  commission  of  philanthropy  among  mortals 
do  not  care  about  pictures,  statues,  and  sumptuous  louildings ;  and  no 
more  did  he,  Avhen  tlie  time  in  which  he  must  have  inspected  and 
admired  them  would  have  been  taken  from  the  work  to  which  he  had 
consecrated  his  life.*  The  curiosity  which  he  might  feel  was  reduced 
to  wait  till  the  hour  should  arrive  when  its  gratification  should  be  pre- 
sented by  conscience,  which  kept  a  scrupulous  charge  of  all  his  lime, 
as  the  most  sacred  duty  of  that  hour.  If  lie  was  still  at  every  hour, 
when  it  came,  fated  to  feel  the  attractions  of  the  fine  arts  but  the 
second  claim,  they  might  be  sure  of  their  revenge;  for  no  other  man 

*  Mr.  Howard,  however,  was  not  destitute  of  taste  for  the  fine  arts.  Hia  house  at  Cardington 
wa.s  better  filled  with  paintings  and  drawings  than  any  other,  on  a  small  scale,  that  we  ever  saw. 
— Rkv. 


240  REVIEW  OF 

will  ever  visit  Rome  under  such  a  despotic  consciousness  of  duty,  as 
to  refuse  himself  time  for  surveying  the  magnificence  of  its  ruins.  Such 
a  sin  against  taste  is  veiy  far  beyond  the  reach  of  common  saintship  to 
commit.  It  implied  an  inconceivable  severity  of  conviction  that  he 
had  one  thing  to  do;  and  that  he  who  would  do  some  great  thing  in 
this  short  life  must  apply  himself  to  the  work  with  such  a  concentra- 
tion of  his  forces,  as,  to  idle  spectators,  who  live  only  to  amuse  them- 
selves, looks  like  insanity.  His  attention  was  so  strongly  and  tena- 
ciously fixed  on  his  object,  that,  even  at  the  greatest  distance,  as  the 
Egyptian  Pyramids  to  travellers,  it  appeared  to  him  with  a  luminous 
distinctness  as  if  it  were  nigh,  and  beguiled  the  toilsome  length  of  labour 
and  enterprise  by  which  he  was  to  reach  it.  It  was  so  conspicuous 
before  him,  that  not  a  step  deviated  from  the  direction,  and  every 
movement  and  every  day  was  an  approximation.  As  his  method  re- 
ferred every  thing  he  did  and  thought  to  the  end,  and  as  his  exertion 
did  not  relax  for  a  moment,  he  made  the  trial,  so  seldom  made — what 
is  the  utmost  effect  which  may  be  granted  to  the  last  possible  efforts 
of  a  human  agent ;  and,  therefore,  what  he  did  not  accomplish,  he 
might  conclude  to  be  placed  beyond  the  sphere  of  mortal  activity,  and 
calmly  leave  to  the  immediate  disposal  of  Providence." — Pp.  156- 
160.     Pp.  125-128,  Seventh  Edition. 

We  have  one  remark  to  make  before  we  conclude  our  revieAV  of  this 
essay.  We  are  a  little  apprehensive  that  the  glowing  colours  in  which 
the  imagination  of  Mr.  F.  has  painted  an  unyielding  constancy  of  mind, 
may  tend  to  seduce  some  of  his  readers  into  an  intemperate  admira- 
tion of  that  quality,  without  duly  distinguishing  the  object  to  which  it 
is  directed,  and  the  motives  by  which  it  is  sustained.  We  give  our 
author  full  credit  for  the  purity  of  his  principles ;  we  are  firmly  per- 
suaded that  he  is  not  to  be  classed  among  the  impious  idolaters  of 
mental  energy.  But  we  could  wish  that  he  had  more  fully  admonished 
his  readers  to  regard  resolution  of  character  not  as  a  virtue  so  much 
as  the  means  of  virtue — a  mere  instrument,  that  owes  its  value  entirely 
to  the  purpose  to  which  it  is  employed  ;  and  that  wherever  nature  has 
conferred  it,  an  additional  obligation  is  imposed  of  purifying  the  prin- 
ciples and  regulating  the  heart.  It  might  at  first  view  be  thought 
impossible,  as  Mr.  F.  intimates,  that  men  should  be  found  who  are  as 
resolute  in  the  prosecution  of  criminal  enterprises  as  they  could  be 
supposed  to  be  in  the  pursuit  of  the  most  virtuous  objects.  It  is  surely 
a  melancholy  proof  of  something  wrong  in  the  constitution  of  human 
nature,  that  a  quality  so  important  as  that  of  energetic  decision  is  so 
little  under  the  regulation  of  principle  ;  that  constancy  is  so  much  more 
frequently  to  be  seen  in  what  is  wrong  than  in  what  is  right ;  and, 
in  fine,  that  the  world  can  boast  so  many  more  heroes  than  the 
church. 

In  the  third  essay.  On  the  Application  of  the  Epithet  Romantic,  Mr. 
Foster  takes  occasion  to  expose  the  eagerness  with  which  terms  of 
censure  are  adopted  by  men  who,  instead  of  calmly  weighing  the 
merits  of  an  undertaking  or  a  character,  think  it  sufficient  to  express 
their  antipathy  by  some  opprobrious  appellation.     The  epithet  romantic 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS.  241 

holds  a  distinguished  place  in  the  vocabulary  of  contempt.  If  a  scheme 
of  action  which  it  requires  much  benevolence  to  conceive  and  much 
vigour  to  execute  be  proposed,  by  many  it  will  be  thought  completely 
exploded  when  they  have  branded  it  with  the  appellation  of  romantic. 
Tluis  selfishness  and  indolence,  arraying  themselves  in  the  garb  of 
wisdom,  assume  the  pride  of  superiority  when  they  ought  to  feel  the 
humiliation  of  guilt.  To  imitate  the  highest  examples,  to  do  good  in 
ways  not  usual  to  the  same  rank,  of  life,  to  make  great  exertions  and 
sacrifices  in  the  cause  of  religion  and  with  a  view  to  eternal  happiness, 
to  determine  without  delay  to  reduce  to  practice  whatever  we  applaud 
in  theory,  are  modes  of  conduct  which  the  world  will  generally  con- 
demn as  romantic,  but  which  this  author  shows  to  be  founded  on  the 
highest  reason.  In  unfolding  the  true  idea  of  the  romantic,  as  appli- 
cable to  a  train  of  sentiments  or  course  of  conduct,  he  ascribes 
whatever  may  be  justly  so  denominated  to  the  predominance  of  the 
imagination  over  the  other  powers.  He  points  out  the  symptoms  of 
this  disease  as  apparent — -in  the  expectation  of  a  peculiar  destiny, 
while  the  fancy  paints  to  itself  scenes  of  unexampled  felicity, — in  over- 
looking the  relation  which  subsists  between  ends  and  means, — in 
counting  upon  casualties  instead  of  contemplating  the  stated  order  of 
events, — and  in  hoping  to  realize  the  most  momentous  projects  without 
any  means  at  all,  or  by  means  totally  inadequate  to  the  effect.  Some 
of  the  illustrations  which  the  author  introduces  on  this  part  of  his 
subject  are  peculiarly  happy.  We  are  delighted  to  find  him  treating 
with  poignant  ridicule  those  superficial  pretenders  who,  without  dis- 
avowing any  dependence  on  divine  agency,  hope  to  reform  the  world 
and  to  bring  back  a  paradisiacal  state  by  the  mere  force  of  moral 
instruction.  For  the  prospect  of  the  general  prevalence  of  virtue  and 
happiness  we  are  indebted  to  revelation.  We  have  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose the  minds  of  our  modern  infidels  sufficiently  elevated  to  have 
thought  of  the  cessation  of  wars  and  the  universal  diffusion  of  peace 
and  love,  but  for  the  information  which  they  have  obtained  from  the 
Scriptures.  From  these  they  derive  the  doctrine  of  a  Millennium  ;  and 
they  have  received  it  as  they  have  done  every  thing  else,  only  to  corrupt 
it :  for,  exploding  all  the  means  by  which  the  Scriptures  have  taught 
us  to  expect  the  completion  of  this  event,  they  rely  merely  on  the 
resources  of  reason  and  philosophy.  They  impiously  deck  themselves 
with  the  spoils  of  revelation,  and  take  occasion  from  the  hopes  and 
prospects  which  she  alone  supplies,  to  deride  her  assistance  and  to 
idolize  the  powers  of  human  nature.  That  Being  who  planted  Chris- 
tianity by  miraculous  interposition,  and  by  the  effusion  of  his  Spirit 
produced  such  effects  in  the  hearts  of  millions  as  afford  a  specimen 
and  a  pledge  of  an  entire  renovation,  has  also  assured  us  that  violence 
and  injustice  shall  cease,  and  that  none  shall  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  his 
holy  mountain,  because  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knoidcdge  of  God, 
But  it  seems  revelation  is  to  have  no  concern  in  this  work ;  philoso- 
phy is  to  effect  every  thing ;  and  we  are  to  look  to  the  Political  Justice 
of  Godwin  and  the  Moral  Code  of  Volney  for  that  which  Christians 
were  so  weak  as  to  expect  at  the  hand  of  Deity. 
Vol.  II.— Q 


242  REVIEW  OF 

The  conclusion  which  our  author  draws  from  the  insufficiency  of 
mere  human  agency  to  effect  that  great  renovation  in  the  character  and 
condition  of  men  which  revelation  teaches  us  to  expect,  is  most  just 
and  consolatory.  We  should  have  been  happy  to  transcribe  the  pas- 
sage ;  but  lest  we  should  exceed  our  limits,  we  refer  our  readers  to 
vol.  11.  pp.  87,  88.     Pp.  244-247,  Seventh  Edition. 

The  last  essay  in  these  volumes  attempts  to  assign  some  of  the  causes 
that  have  rendered  evangelical  religion  less  acceptable  to  persons  of  cul- 
Hvated  taste.  This  essay  is  the  most  elaborate.  Aware  of  the  deli- 
cacy and  difficulty  of  his  subject,  the  author  seems  to  have  summoned 
all  the  powers  of  his  mind,  to  enable  him  to  grasp  it  in  all  its  extent, 
and  to  present  it  in  all  its  force  and  beauty.  This  essay  is  itself 
sufficient,  in  our  opinion,  to  procure  the  author  a  brilliant  and  lasting 
reputation. 

It  is  proper  to  remind  our  readers,  that  in  tracing  the  causes  which 
have  tended  to  produce  in  men  of  taste  an  aversion  to  evangelical 
religion,  Mr.  F.  avowedly  confines  himself  to  those  which  are  of  a 
subordinate  class,  while  he  fully  admits  the  primary  cause  to  be  that 
inherent  corruption  of  nature  which  renders  men  strongly  indisposed  to 
any  communication  from  heaven.  We  could,  however,  have  wished 
that  he  had  insisted  on  this  more  largely.  The  Scriptures  ascribe  the 
rejection  of  the  gospel  to  one  general  principle :  the  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  God,  neither  can  he  knoto  them,  because  they 
are  spiritually  discerned.  The  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity  are 
distinguished  by  a  spirit  irreconcilably  at  variance  with  that  of  the 
world.  The  deep  repentance  it  enjoins  strikes  at  the  pride  and  levity 
of  the  human  heart.  The  mystery  of  an  incarnate  and  crucified  Saviour 
must  necessarily  confound  the  reason  and  shock  the  prejudices  of  a 
mind  which  will  admit  nothing  that  it  cannot  perfectly  reduce  to  the 
principles  of  philosophy.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  life  of  Christ,  the 
objects  he  pursued,  and  the  profound  humiliation  he  exhibited,  must 
convict  of  madness  and  folly  the  favourite  pursuits  of  mankind.  The 
virtues  usually  practised  in  society,  and  the  models  of  excellence  most 
admired  there,  are  so  remote  from  that  holiness  which  is  enjoined  in 
the  New  Testament,  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  taste  which  is  formed 
on  the  one  to  perceive  the  charms  of  the  other.  The  happiness  which 
it  proposes  in  a  union  with  God  and  a  participation  of  the  image  of 
Christ,  is  so  far  from  being  congenial  to  the  inclinations  of  worldly 
men,  that  it  can  scarcely  be  mentioned  without  exciting  their  ridicule 
and  scorn.  General  speculations  on  the  Deity  have  much  to  amuse 
the  mind  and  to  gratify  that  appetite  for  the  wonderful  which  thoughtful 
and  speculative  men  are  delighted  to  indulge.  Religion,  viewed  in  this 
light,  appears  more  in  the  form  of  an  exercise  to  the  understanding 
than  a  law  to  the  heart.  Here  the  soul  expatiates  at  large,  without 
feeling  itself  controlled  or  alarmed.  But  when  evangelical  truths  are 
presented,  they  bring  God  so  near,  if  we  may  be  allowed  the  expression, 
and  speak  with  so  commanding  a  voice  to  the  conscience,  that  they 
leave  no  alternative  but  that  of  submissive  acquiescence  or  proud 
revolt.     As  men  of  taste  are  for  the  most  part  men  of  the  world,  not 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS.  243 

at  all  distinguished  from  others  by  a  greater  familiarity  with  religious 
ideas,  these  observations  are  applicable  to  them  in  their  utmost  extent. 

Though  we  thought  it  right  to  suggest  these  hints,  we  wish  not  to 
be  understood  to  convey  any  censure  on  Mr.  F.  for  confining  his  atten- 
tion principally  to  other  topics.  In  discussing  more  fully  and  pro- 
foundly some  of  the  subordinate  causes  which  have  come  in  aid  of  the 
primary  one,  to  render  men  of  cultivated  taste  averse  to  evangelical 
piety,  we  think  he  has  rendered  an  important  service  to  the  public. 

The  first  cause  he  assigns  is  that  of  its  being  the  religion  of  many 
weak  and  uncultivated  minds ;  in  consequence  of  which  it  becomes 
inseparably  associated  in  the  conceptions  of  many  with  the  intellectual 
poverty  of  its  disciples,  so  as  to  wear  a  mean  and  degraded  aspect. 
We  regret  that  we  cannot  follow  the  author  in  his  illustration  of  this 
topic.  We  must  be  content  whh  observing,  that  he  has  exposed  the 
weakness  of  this  prejudice  in  a  most  masterly  and  triumphant  manner. 

The  second  cause  which  the  author  assigns  as  having  had,  in  his 
opinion,  a  considerable  influence  in  prejudicing  elegant  and  cultivated 
minds  against  evangelical  pietj^  is  the  peculiarity  of  language  adopted 
in  the  discourses  and  books  of  its  teachers,  the  want  of  a  more 
classical  form  of  diction,  and  the  profusion  of  words  and  phrases  which 
are  of  a  technical  and  systematical  cast. 

We  are  inclined  to  think,  with  Mr.  F.,  that  the  cause  of  religion  has 
suffered  considerably  from  the  circumstance  here  mentioned.  The 
superabundance  of  phrases  appropriated  by  some  pious  authors  to  the 
subject  of  religion,  and  never  applied  to  any  other  purpose,  has  not 
only  the  effect  of  disgusting  persons  of  taste,  but  of  obscuring  religion 
itself.  As  they  are  seldom  defined,  and  never  exchanged  for  equiva- 
lent words,  they  pass  current  without  being  understood.  They  are 
not  the  vehicle,  they  are  the  substitute  of  thought.  Among  a  certain 
description  of  Christians,  they  become  by  degrees  to  be  regarded  with  a 
mystic  awe,  insomuch  that  if  a  writer  expressed  the  very  same  ideas 
in  different  phrases  he  would  be  condemned  as  a  heretic.  To  quit  the 
magical  circle  of  words,  in  which  many  Christians  suffer  themselves  to 
be  confined,  excites  as  great  a  clamour  as  the  boldest  innovation  in 
sentiment.  Controversies  which  have  been  agitated  with  much  warmth 
might  often  have  been  amicably  adjusted,  or  even  finally  decided,  could 
the  respective  partisans  have  been  prevailed  on  to  lay  aside  their 
predilection  for  phrases,  and  honestly  resolve  to  examine  their  real 
import.  In  defiance  of  the  dictates  of  candour  and  good  sense,  these 
have  been  obstinately  retained,  and  have  usually  been  the  refuge  of 
ignorance,  the  apple  of  discord,  and  the  watchwords  of  religious 
hostility.  In  some  instances  the  evil  which  we  lament  has  sprung 
from  a  more  amiable  cause.  The  force  and  solemnity  of  devotional 
feelings  are  such,  that  they  seem  to  consecrate  every  thing  with  which 
they  have  been  connected ;  and  as  the  bulk  of  pious  people  have 
received  their  religious  impressions  from  teachers  more  distinguished 
for  their  simplicity  and  zeal  than  for  comprehension  of  mind  and 
copiousness  of  language,  they  learn  to  annex  an  idea  of  sanctity  to 
that  set  of  phrases  with  which  they  have  been  most  familiar.     These 

Q3 


244  REVIEW  OF 

become  the  current  language  of  religion,  to  which  subsequent  writers 
conform,  partly  perhaps  from  indolence,  and  partly  from  the  fear  of 
offending  their  brethren. 

To  these  causes  we  may  add  the  contentious  and  sectarian  spirit  of 
modern  times,  which  has  taught  the  different  parties  of  Christians  to 
look  on  one  another  with  an  unnatural  horror,  to  apprehend  contami- 
nation from  the  very  phrases  employed  by  each  other,  and  to  invent, 
each  for  itself,  a  dialect  as  narrow  and  exclusive  as  their  whimsical 
singularities.  But  while  we  concur  in  the  main  with  Mr.  F.  on  this 
subject,  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  he  has  carried  his  representations 
too  far,  both  with  respect  to  the  magnitude  of  the  abuse  itself,  and  the 
probable  advantages  which  would  ensue  on  its  removal.  The  repug- 
nance of  the  human  mind  in  its  unenlightened  state  to  the  peculiarities 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  is  such,  that  we  have  little  hope  of  its  yielding 
to  the  voice  of  the  charmer,  charm  he  never  so  wisely.  Till  it  is 
touched  and  humbled  by  grace,  we  are  apprehensive  that  it  will  retain 
its  aversion,  and  not  suffer  itself  to  be  cheated  into  an  approbation 
of  the  gospel  by  any  artifice  of  words.  Exhibit  evangelical  religion 
in  what  colours  you  will,  the  worldly-minded  and  the  careless  will 
shrink  from  the  obtrusion  of  unwelcome  ideas.  Cowper  has  become, 
in  spite  of  his  religion,  a  popular  poet,  but  his  success  has  not  been 
such  as  to  make  religion  popular ;  nor  have  the  gigantic  genius  and 
fame  of  Milton  shielded  from  the  ridicule  and  contempt  of  his  admirers 
that  system  of  religion  which  he  beheld  with  awful  adoration. 

In  treating  subjectsproperly  theological,  we  apprehend  great  caution 
should  be  used  not  to  deviate  wantonly  and  unnecessarily  from  the 
phraseology  of  Scripture.  The  apostle  tells  us,  that  in  preaching  the 
gospel  he  did  not  use  the  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  such  words 
as  the  Holy  Ghost  taught  him.  We  do  not,  indeed,  contend  that  in  the 
choice  of  every  particular  word  or  phrase  he  was  immediately  inspired  ; 
but  we  think  it  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  unction  which  was  on  his 
heart,  and  the  perfect  illumination  that  he  possessed,  led  him  to  employ 
such  terms  in  the  statement  of  the  mysteries  of  Christianity  as  were 
better  adapted  than  any  other  to  convey  their  real  import,  which  we 
are  the  more  inclined  to  conclude,  from  observing  the  sameness  of 
phraseology  Avhich  pervades  the  writings  of  the  apostles  when  they 
are  treating  on  the  same  subject.  As  the  truths  which  the  revelation 
of  the  New  Testament  unfolds  are  perfectly  original  and  transcendently 
important,  it  might  naturally  be  expected  that  the  communication  of 
them  would  give  birth  to  an  original  cast  of  phraseology,  or,  in  other 
words,  a  steady  adherence  to  certain  terms,  in  order  to  render  the  ideas 
which  they  conveyed  fixed,  precise,  and  unchangeable. 

In  teaching  the  principles  of  every  science,  it  is  found  necessary  to 
select  or  invent  terms  which,  though  originally  of  a  more  lax  signification, 
are  afterward  restricted  and  confined  to  one  peculiar  modification  of 
thought,  and  constitute  the  technical  language  of  that  science.  Such 
terms  are  always  capable  of  being  defined  (for  mere  words  convey 
nothing  to  the  mind) ;  but  to  substitute  a  definition  in  their  place  would 
be  tedious  circumlocution,  and  to  exchange  the  term  itself  for  a  different 
one  would  frequently  lead  to  dangerous  mistakes. 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS.  245 

In  the  original  elementary  parts  of  a  language  there  are,  in  truth, 
few  or  no  synonymes  ;  for  what  should  prompt  men,  in  the  early  period 
of  literature,  to  invent  a  word  that  neither  conveyed  any  new  idea,  nor 
enabled  them  to  present  an  old  one  with  more  force  and  precision  ?  In 
the  progress  of  refinement,  indeed,  regard  to  copiousness  and  harmony- 
has  enriched  language  with  many  exotics,  which  are  merely  those 
words  in  a  foreign  language  that  perfectly  correspond  to  terms  in  our 
own ;  as  felicity  for  happiness,  celestial  for  heavenly,  and  a  multitude 
of  others.  Since,  then,  the  nature  of  language  is  such  that  no  two 
terms  are  exactly  of  the  same  force  and  import  (except  in  the  case  last 
mentioned),  we  cannot  but  apprehend  that  dangerous  consequences 
would  result  from  a  studied  attempt  to  vary  from  the  standard  phrase- 
ology where  the  statement  of  doctrines  is  concerned,  and  that  by  chang- 
ing the  terms  the  ideas  themselves  might  be  changed  or  mutilated. 
In  teaching  a  religion  designed  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  all  mankind, 
it  is  certainly  desirable  that  the  technical  words,  the  words  employed 
in  a  peculiar  and  appropriate  sense,  should  be  few :  but  to  fix  and 
perpetuate  the  ideas,  and  to  preserve  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints  from  the  caprices  of  fancy  and  the  dangers  of  innovation,  it 
seems  necessary  that  there  should  be  some.  We  are  inclined  to  think, 
that  in  inculcating  Christian  morality,  and  in  appeals  and  addresses  to 
the  heart,  a  much  greater  latitude  may  be  safely  indulged  than  in  the 
statement  of  peculiar  doctrines ;  and  that  a  more  bold  and  varied 
diction,  with  a  wider  range  of  illustration  and  allusion  than  is  usually 
employed,  would  often  be  attended  with  the  happiest  effect.  Mr.  Foster 
has  given,  in  many  parts  of  these  volumes,  beautiful  specimens  of  what 
we  intend. 

With  respect  to  the  copious  use  of  Scripture  language,  which  Mr. 
F.  condemns  (in  our  opinion  with  too  much  severity)  as  giving  an 
uncouth  and  barbarous  air  to  theological  books,  we  prefer  a  middle 
course ;  without  applauding  the  excess  to  which  it  is  carried  by  many 
pious  writers,  on  tlie  one  hand,  or  wishing  it  to  be  kept  so  entirely 
apart  as  Mr.  F.  contends,  on  the  other.  To  say  nothing  of  the  inimita- 
ble beauties  of  the  Bible,  considered  in  a  Iherary  view,  which  are 
universally  acknowledged,  it  is  the  book  which  every  devout  man  is 
accustomed  to  consult  as  the  oracle  of  God ;  it  is  the  companion  of 
his  best  moments,  and  the  vehicle  of  his  strongest  consolations. 
Intimately  associated  in  his  mind  with  every  thing  dear  and  valuable, 
its  diction  more  powerfully  excites  devotional  feelings  than  any  other; 
and  when  temperately  and  soberly  used,  imparts  an  unction  to  a  reli- 
gious discourse  which  nothing  else  can  supply.  Besides,  is  there  not 
room  to  apprehend  that  a  studied  avoidance  of  the  Scripture  phraseology^ 
and  a  care  to  express  all  that  it  is  supposed  to  contain  in  the  forms  of 
classical  diction,  might  ultimately  lead  to  a  neglect  of  the  Scriptures 
themselves,  and  a  habit  of  substituting  flashy  and  superficial  declama- 
tion, in  the  room  of  the  saving  truths  of  the  gospel  ?  Such  an 
apprehension  is  but  too  much  verified  by  the  most  celebrated  sermons 
of  the  French;  and  still  more  by  some  modern  compositions  in  our 
own  language,  which  usurp  that  title.     For  devotional  impression,  we 


246  REVIEW  OF 

conceive  that  a  very  considerable  tincture  of  the  language  of  Scripture, 
or  at  least  such  a  colouring  as  shall  discover  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  those  inimitable  models,  will  generally  succeed  best. 

It  is  impossible  to  establish  a  universal  rule,  since  different  methods 
are  equally  adapted  to  different  purposes  ;  and  therefore  we  are  willing 
to  allow,  with  Mr.  F.,  that  where  the  fashionable  and  the  gay  are 
addressed,  and  the  prejudices  arising  from  a  false  refinement  are  to  be 
conciliated,  whatever  in  the  diction  might  repel  by  an  appearance  of 
singularity  should  be  carefully  shumied.  Accordingly,  we  equally 
admire,  in  The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion,  by  Dr.  Doddridge,  and 
in  The  Rural  Philosophy  of  Mr.  Bates,  the  dexterity  with  which  these 
excellent  writers  have  suited  their  composition  to  their  respective 
classes  of  readers.  On  the  whole,  let  it  once  for  all  be  remembered, 
that  men  of  taste  form  a  very  small  part  of  the  community,  of  no 
greater  consequence  in  the  eyes  of  their  Creator  than  others  ;  that  the 
end  of  all  religious  discourse  is  the  salvation  of  souls ;  and  that  to  a 
mind  which  justly  estimates  the  weight  of  eternal  things,  it  will  appear 
a  greater  honour  to  have  converted  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way, 
than  to  have  wielded  the  thunder  of  a  Demosthenes,  or  to  have  kindled 
the  flame  of  a  Cicero. 

We  hasten  to  close  this  article,  by  making  a  few  observations 
on  .the  last  cause  which  our  author  has  assigned  for  the  general  dis- 
taste that  persons  of  polite  and  elegant  attainments  usually  discover 
towards  evangelical  religion.  This  is,  the  neglect  and  contempt  with 
which  it  has  been  almost  constantly  treated  by  our  fine  writers ;  of 
whose  delinquency,  in  this  respect,  the  author  takes  a  wide  and  exten- 
sive survey,  exposing  their  criminality  with  a  force  of  eloquence  that 
has  perhaps  never  before  been  exerted  on  this  subject.  Though  his 
attention  is  chiefly  directed  to  the  influence  of  modern  literature,  yet,  as 
the  writings  of  the  ancients,  and  especially  of  the  poets,  have  had  a  pow- 
erful operation  in  forming  the  taste  and  sentiments  of  succeeding  gene- 
rations, he  has  extended  his  notice  to  these,  and  has  made  some  most 
striking  animadversions  on  the  ancient  authors  of  the  epopceia,  and 
particularly  on  Homer. 

We  must  do  justice  to  his  intrepidity  in  venturing  to  attack  the  idol 
of  all  classical  scholars  ;  nor  can  he  have  failed  to  foresee  the 
manner  in  which  it  will  be  attempted  to  be  repelled.  They  will 
remind  him,  that  the  lawfulness  of  defensive  war  has  seldom  been  called 
in  question ;  that  the  one  in  which  Homer's  heroes  were  engaged  was 
not  only  just,  but  meritorious,  being  undertaken  to  avenge  a  most  signal 
affront  and  injury ;  that  no  subject  could  be  more  suited  to  the  epic 
muse,  either  on  account  of  its  magnitude  or  the  deep  interest  it  excited  ; 
that  having  chosen  it,  the  poet  is  to  be  commended  for  throwing  into  it  all 
the  fire  of  which  it  was  susceptible ;  that  to  cherish  in  the  breasts  of 
youth  a  gallant  and  warlike  spirit  is  the  surest  defence  of  nations ; 
and  that  this  spirit,  under  proper  regulations,  constitutes  that  6vnotiif)i 
which  Plato  extols  so  highly  in  his  republic,  as  the  basis  of  a  manly, 
heroic  character.  This,  and  much  more  than  this,  will  be  said :  but 
when  DUj*  Grecians  have  spent  all  their  arrows,  it  will  still  remain  an 


FOSTER'S  ESSAYS, 


247 


incontestable  fact,  that  an  enthusiastic  admiration  of  the  Ihad  of  Homer 
is  but  a  bad  preparation  for  reUshing  the  beauties  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. What  then  is  to  be  done  ?  Shall  we  abandon  the  classics,  and 
devote  ourselves  solely  to  the  perusal  of  modern  writers,  where  the 
maxims  inculcated  and  the  principles  taught  are  little,  if  at  all,  more 
in  unison  with  those  of  Christianity  ? — a  fact  which  Mr,  F.  acknow- 
ledges and  deplores.  While  things  continue  as  they  are,  we  are 
apprehensive,  therefore,  that  we  should  gain  nothing  by  neglecting  the 
unrivalled  productions  of  genius  left  us  by  the  ancients,  but  a  deterio- 
ration of  taste,  without  any  improvement  in  religion.  The  evil  is  not 
to  be  corrected  by  any  partial  innovation  of  this  kind.  Until  a  more 
Christian  spirit  pervades  the  world,  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
study  of  the  classics  is,  on  the  whole,  advantageous  to  public  morals, 
by  inspiring  an  elegance  of  sentiment  and  an  elevation  of  soul  which 
we  should  in  vain  seek  for  elsewhere. 

The  total  inattention  of  the  great  majority  of  our  fine  writers  to  all 
the  distinguishing  features  of  the  religion  they  profess,  affords  a  most 
melancholy  reflection.  It  has  no  doubt  excited  the  notice  of  many, 
and  has  been  deeply  lamented  ;  but  it  has  never  been  placed  in  a  light 
so  serious  and  affecting  as  in  the  volumes  before  us.  In  the  observa- 
tions which  our  author  makes  on  the  Essay  on  Man,  we  are  delighted 
and  surprised  to  find  at  once  so  much  philosophical  truth  and  poetical 
beauty.  His  critique  on  the  writings  of  Addison  and  Johnson  evinces 
deep  penetration  ;  and  as  respects  the  former,  is  uncommonly  impres- 
sive and  important. 

We  take  our  leave  of  this  work  with  sincere  reluctance.  For  the 
length  to  which  we  have  extended  our  review,  the  subject  must  be  our 
apology.  It  has  fared  with  us  as  with  a  traveller  who  passes  through 
an  enchanting  country,  where  he  meets  with  so  many  beautiful  views 
and  so  many  striking  objects  which  he  is  loath  to  quit,  that  he  loiters 
till  the  shades  of  the  evening  insensibly  fall  upon  him.  We  are  far, 
however,  from  recommending  these  volumes  as  faultless.  Mr.  F.'s 
work  is  rather  an  example  of  the  power  of  genius  than  a  specimen  of 
finished  composition  :  it  lies  open  in  many  points  to  the  censure  of  those 
minor  critics  who,  by  the  observation  of  a  few  technical  rules,  may 
easily  avoid  its  faults  without  reaching  one  of  its  beauties.  The  author 
has  paid  too  little  attention  to  the  construction  of  his  sentences.  They 
are  for  the  most  part  too  long,  sometimes  involved  in  perplexity,  and 
often  loaded  with  redundances.  They  have  too  much  of  the  looseness 
of  an  harangue  and  too  little  of  the  compact  elegance  of  regular  com- 
position. An  occasional  obscurity  pervades  some  parts  of  the  work. 
The  mind  of  the  writer  seems  at  times  to  struggle  witli  conceptions  too 
mighty  for  his  grasp,  and  to  present  confused  masses,  rather  than  dis- 
tinct delineations  of  thought.  This,  however,  is  to  be  imputed  to  the 
originality,  not  the  weakness  of  his  powers.  The  scale  on  which  he 
thinks  is  so  vast,  and  the  excursions  of  his  imagination  are  so  extended, 
that  they  frequently  carry  him  into  the  most  unbeaten  track,  and  among 
objects  where  a  ray  of  light  glances  in  an  angle  only,  without  diffusing 
itself  over  the  whole.    On  ordinary  topics  his  conceptions  are  luminous 


248  REVIEW  OF  FOSTER'S  ESSAYS. 

in  the  highest  degree.  He  places  the  idea  which  he  wishes  to  present 
in  such  a  flood  of  light,  that  it  is  not  merely  visible  itself,  but  it  seems 
to  illumine  all  around  it.  He  paints  metaphysics,  and  has  the  happy 
art  of  arraying  what  in  other  hands  would  appear  cold  and  comfortless 
abstractions,  in  the  warmest  colours  of  fancy.  Without  the  least  affect- 
ation of  frivolous  ornaments,  without  quitting  his  argument  in  pursuit 
of  imagery,  his  imagination  becomes  the  perfect  handmaid  of  his  reason, 
ready  at  every  moment  to  spread  her  canvass  and  present  her  pencil. 
But  what  pleases  us  most,  and  affords  us  the  highest  satisfaction,  is  to 
find  such  talents  enlisted  on  the  side  of  true  Christianity ;  nor  can  we 
help  indulging  a  benevolent  triumph  at  the  accession  of  powers  to  the 
cause  of  evangelical  piety,  which  its  most  distinguished  opponents 
would  be  proud  to  possess. 


REVIEW 

OF 

CUSTANCE  ON  THE  CONSTITUTION. 


A  concise  View  of  the  Constitution  of  England.  By  George  Cus- 
TANCE.  Dedicated  by  permission  to  William  Wilberforce,  Esq.  M.  P. 
for  the  County  of  York.  12mo.  pp.  474.  Price  6.?.  bds.  Kidder- 
minster: Gower.     London:  Longman  &  Co.     Hatchard.    1808. 

It  were  surely  to  be  wished  that  every  man  had  a  competent  ac- 
quaintance with  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  country  to  which  he 
belongs.  Patriotism  is  a  blind  and  irrational  impulse,  unless  it  is 
founded  on  a  knowledge  of  the  blessings  we  are  called  to  secure,  and 
the  privileges  we  propose  to  defend.  In  a  tyrannical  state  it  is  natural 
for  the  ruhng  power  to  cherish  political  ignorance,  which  can  alone 
reconcile  men  to  the  tame  surrender  of  their  natural  rights.  The  diffu- 
sion of  light  and  knowledge  is  very  unfavourable  to  ill-founded  pretensions 
of  every  sort,  but  to  none  more  than  the  encroachments  of  arbitrary 
power  and  lawless  violence.  The  more  we  explore  the  recesses  of  a 
dungeon  the  less  likely  are  we  to  be  reconciled  to  take  up  our  resi- 
dence in  it.  But  the  venerable  fabric  of  the  British  constitution,  our 
hereditary  mansion,  whether  it  be  tried  by  the  criterion  of  convenience 
or  of  beauty,  of  ancient  prescription  or  of  practical  utility,  will  bear  the 
most  rigid  examination ;  and  the  more  it  is  contemplated,  will  be  the 
more  admired. 

The  Romans  were  so  conscious  of  the  importance  of  imparting  to 
the  rising  generation  an  early  knowledge  of  their  laws  and  constitution, 
that  the  contents  of  the  twelve  tables  were  committed  to  memory,  and 
formed  one  of  the  first  elements  of  public  instruction.  They  were 
sensible  that  what  lays  hold  of  the  mind  at  so  early  a  period  is  not 
only  likely  to  be  long  remembered,  but  is  almost  sure  to  command 
veneration  and  respect.  We  are  not  aware  that  similar  attempts  have 
been  made  to  render  the  British  youth  acquainted  witli  the  principles 
of  our  admirable  constitution,  not  inferior  surely  to  tliat  of  the  Roman 
republic  ;  a  defect  in  the  system  of  education  which  the  circumstances 
of  the  present  crisis  loudly  call  upon  us  to  supply.  When  our  exist- 
ence as  an  independent  nation  is  threatened,  when  unexampled  sacri- 
fices must  be  made,  and  perhaps  the  utmost  efforts  of  patience  and  of 


250  REVIEW  OF 

persevering  courage  exerted  for  our  preservation,  an  attachment  to 
that  constitution  which  is  the  basis  of  all  our  prosperity  cannot  be  too 
zealously  promoted,  or  too  deeply  felt.  It  is  a  just  and  enlightened 
estimate  of  the  invaluable  blessings  that  constitution  secures,  which 
alone  can  make  us  sustain  our  present  burdens  without  repining,  as 
well  as  prepare  us  for  greater  privations  and  severer  struggles.  For 
this  reason  we  cannot  but  look  upon  the  performance  before  us  as  a 
most  seasonable  publication.  One  cause  of  the  attention  of  youth  being 
so  little  directed  to  our  national  laws  and  constitution,  in  schools,  is 
probably  the  want  of  suitable  books.  We  have  an  abundance  of  learned 
and  able  writers  on  these  subjects,  but  few,  if  any,  that  are  quite 
adapted  to  the  purpose  Ave  are  now  speaking  of.  Millar's  is  a  very 
profound  and  original  work ;  but  it  supposes  a  great  deal  of  previous 
knowledge,  without  which  it  can  be  scarcely  understood,  and  is  in 
every  view  better  adapted  to  aid  the  researches  of  an  antiquary  or  the 
speculations  of  a  philosopher  than  to  answer  the  end  of  an  elementary 
treatise.  De  Lolme's  performance  may  be  deemed  more  suitable  ;  yet, 
able  and  ingenious  as  it  is,  it  labours  under  some  essential  deficiencies, 
considered  in  the  light  of  an  elementary  work.  There  is  in  it  a  spirit 
of  refined  speculation,  an  eagerness  to  detect  and  display  latent,  un- 
thought-of  excellences  in  the  frame  of  government,  which  is  very  remote 
from  the  simplicity  requisite  in  the  lessons  of  youth.  Of  Blackstone's 
Commentaries  it  would  be  presumptuous  in  us  to  attempt  an  eulogium, 
after  Sir  William  Jones  has  pronounced  it  to  be  the  most  beautiful  out- 
line that  was  ever  given  of  any  science.  Nothing  can  exceed  the 
luminous  arrangement,  the  vast  comprehension,  and,  we  may  venture 
to  add  from  the  best  authorities,  the  legal  accuracy  of  this  wonderful 
performance,  which  in  style  and  composition  is  distinguished  by  an 
unaffected  grace,  a  majestic  simplicity,  which  can  only  be  eclipsed  by 
the  splendour  of  its  higher  qualities.  Admirable,  however,  as  these 
commentaries  are,  it  is  obvious  that  they  are  much  too  voluminous  and 
elaborate  to  answer  the  purpose  of  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  the 
English  constitution.  We  do,  therefore,  most  sincerely  congratulate 
the  public  on  the  appearance  of  a  work  which  we  can  safely  recom- 
mend as  well  fitted  to  supply  a  chasm  in  our  system  of  public  instruc- 
tion. The  book  before  us  is,  in  every  view,  well  adapted  for  the 
instruction  of  youth :  the  clear  and  accurate  information  it  conveys 
upon  a  most  important  subject,  and  the  truly  Christian  tincture  of  its 
maxims  and  principles,  are  well  calculated  to  enlarge  the  understand- 
ing and  improve  the  heart.  We  beg  leave  particularly  to  recommend 
it  to  the  attention  of  schools,  in  which  we  conceive  a  general  acquaint- 
ance with  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  country  might  be  cultivated 
with  much  advantage,  as  forming  a  proper  preparation  for  the  active 
scenes  of  life.  Legal  provisions  for  the  security  of  the  best  temporal 
interests  of  mankind  are  the  result  of  so  much  collective  wisdom  and 
experience,  and  are  so  continually  conversant  with  human  affairs,  that 
we  know  no  study  more  adapted  to  invigorate  the  understanding,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  give  a  practical  turn  to  its  speculations.  The  close 
cohesion  of  its  parts  tends  to  make  the  mind  severely  argumentative, 


CUSTANCE  ON  THE  CONSTITUTION.  251 

while  its  continual  relation  to  the  state  of  society  and  its  successive 
revolutions  fences  it  on  the  side  of  metaphysical  abstraction  and  useless 
theories.  What  we  look  upon  (for  the  reasons  already  mentioned)  to 
be  a  most  useful  and  interesting  study  at  all  times,  we  would  earnestly 
recommend  as  an  indispensable  duty  at  the  present  crisis. 

Of  the  merits  of  the  work  before  us  the  public  may  form  some 
judgment,  when  we  inform  them  that  it  contains  whatever  is  most 
interesting  to  the  general  reader  in  Blackstone,  together  with  much 
useful  information  derived  from  Professor  Christian,  De  Lolme,  and 
various  other  eminent  authors.  Some  will  be  ready  to  accuse  the 
writer  of  having  carried  his  partiality  towards  whatever  is  established 
too  far ;  nor  dare  we  say  the  charge  is  entirely  unfounded.  We  are 
not  disposed,  however,  to  be  severe  upon  him  on  this  account.  We 
wish  to  see  the  minds  of  our  youth  preoccupied  with  a  strong  bias  in 
favour  of  our  national  institutions.  We  would  wish  to  see  them  ani- 
mated by  a  warm  and  generous  enthusiasm,  and  to  defer  the  business 
of  detecting  faults  and  exposing  imperfections  to  a  future  period. 
Let  us  only  be  allowed  to  remark,  that  this  policy  should  be  temper- 
ately employed ;  lest  the  mind  should  suffer  a  revulsion,  and  pass, 
perhaps  rather  abruptly,  from  implicit  admiration  to  the  contrary  ex- 
treme ;  lest,  indignant  at  having  been  misled,  it  substitute  general  cen- 
sure for  undistinguishing  applause. 

We  wish  our  author  had,  in  common  with  Blackstone,  expressed  his 
disapprobation  of  the  severity  of  the  criminal  code.  The  multiplicity 
of  capital  punishments  we  shall  always  consider  as  a  reproach  to  the 
English  nation ;  though,  numerous  as  they  are,  they  bear  no  propor- 
tion to  what  they  would  be,  were  the  law  permitted  to  take  its  course. 
The  offences  deemed  capital  by  the  common  law  are  few ;  the  san- 
guinary complexion  of  the  criminal  law,  as  it  now  stands,  has  arisen 
from  the  injudicious  tampering  of  the  legislature.  To  us  it  appears 
evident,  that  the  certainty  of  punishment  will  restrain  offenders  more 
than  its  severity ;  and  that  when  men  are  tempted  to  transgress,  they 
do  not  weigh  the  emolument  they  had  in  view  against  the  penalty 
awarded  by  law,  but  simply  the  probability  of  detection  and  punish- 
ment against  that  of  impunity.  Let  the  punishments  be  moderate, 
and  this  will  be  the  most  effectual  means  of  rendering  them  certain. 
While  nothing  can  exceed  the  trial  by  jury,  and  the  dignified  impar- 
tiality with  which  justice  is  administered,  we  are  compelled  to  look 
upon  the  criminal  code  with  very  different  emotions,  and  earnestly  to 
wish  it  were  carefully  revised,  and  made  more  humane,  simple,  and 
precise. 

As  little  can  we  concur  with  the  author  before  us  in  the  defence  he 
sets  up  of  the  donation  of  pensions  and  sinecures,  where  there  are  no 
pretensions  of  personal  merit  or  honourable  services.  Standing  quite 
aloof  from  party  politics,  we  must  affirm,  that  to  whatever  extent  such 
a  practice  exists,  exactly  in  the  same  proportion  is  it  a  source  of  public 
calamity  and  disgrace.  To  look  at  it,  as  our  author  does,  only  in 
a  pecuniary  view,  is  to  neglect  the  principal  consideration.  It  is 
not  merely  or  chiefly  as  a  waste  of  public  money  that  the  granting 


252  REVIEW  OF 

of  sinecures  and  pensions  to  the  undeserving  ought  to  be  condemned ; 
the  venality  and  corruption  it  indicates  and  produces  is  its  worst  fea- 
ture, and  an  infaUible  symptom  of  a  dechning  state.  With  these  ex- 
ceptions, we  have  accompanied  the  author  with  ahuost  uninterrupted 
pleasure,  and  have  been  highly  gratified  with  the  good  sense,  the 
extensive  information,  and  the  unaffected  piety  he  displays  throughout 
the  work.  Though  a  firm  and  steady  churchman  himself,  he  manifests 
a  truly  Christian  spirit  towards  the  Protestant  dissenters ;  and  so  far 
from  looking  with  an  evil  eye  on  the  large  toleration  they  enjoy,  that 
he  contemplates  with  evident  satisfaction  the  laws  on  which  that  tole- 
ration is  founded. 

Of  the  style  of  this  work  it  is  but  justice  to  say,  that,  without 
aspiring  to  any  high  degree  of  ornament,  it  is  pure,  perspicuous,  and 
correct,  well  suited  to  the  subject  on  which  it  is  employed. 

As  a  fair  specimen  of  Mr.  C's  manner  of  thinking,  we  beg  leave  to 
lay  before  our  readers  the  following  just  and  appropriate  remarks  on 
duelling : — 

"  Deliberate  duelling  falls  under  the  head  of  express  malice ;  and 
the  law  of  England  has  justly  fixed  the  crime  and  punishment  of  mur- 
der upon  both  the  principal  and  accessaries  of  this  most  unchristian 
practice.  Nothing  more  is  necessary  with  us  to  check  this  daring 
violation  of  all  law,  than  the  same  firmness  and  integrity  in  the  trial 
of  duellists  which  so  eminently  distinguish  an  English  jury  on  all 
other  occasions. 

"  Perhaps  it  will  be  asked,  What  are  men  of  honour  to  do,  if  they 
must  not  appeal  to  the  pistol  and  the  sword  ?  The  answer  is  obvious : 
if  one  gentleman  has  offended  another,  he  cannot  give  a  more  indispu- 
table proof  of  genuine  courage,  than  by  making  a  frank  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  fault,  and  asking  forgiveness  of  the  injured  party.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  he  have  received  an  affront,  he  ought  freely  to  forgive, 
as  he  hopes  to  be  forgiven  of  God.  And  if  either  of  the  parties 
aggravate  the  matter  by  sending  a  challenge  to  fight,  the  other  must  not 
be  a  partaker  of  sin,  if  he  would  obey  God  rather  than  man. 

"  Still  it  will  be  said,  that  a  military  or  naval  man,  at  least,  must 
not  decline  a  challenge,  if  he  would  maintain  the  character  of  a  man 
of  courage.  But  is  it  not  insulting  the  loyalty  and  good  sense  of  the 
brave  defenders  of  our  laws,  to  imagine  that  they  of  all  men  must 
violate  them  to  preserve  their  honour ;  since  the  king  has  expressly 
forbidden  any  military  man  to  send  a  challenge  to  fight  a  duel,  upon 
pain  of  being  cashiered,  if  an  officer ;  and  of  suffering  corporal  pun- 
ishment, if  a  non-commissioned  officer,  or  private  soldier  ?  Nor  ought 
any  officer  or  soldier  to  upbraid  another  for  refusing  a  challenge,  whom 
his  majesty  positively  declares  he  considers  as  having  only  acted  in 
obedience  to  his  royal  orders ;  and  fully  acquits  of  any  disgrace  that 
may  be  attached  to  his  conduct.*  Besides,  what  necessary  connexion 
is  there  between  the  toolhardiness  of  one  who  risks  the  eternal  perdi- 
tion of  his  neighbour  and  of  himself  in  an  unlawful  combat,  and  the 

*'  See  Articles  of  War,  see.  7." 


CUSTANCE  ON  THE  CONSTITUTION.  253 

patriotic  bravery  of  him  who,  when  duty  calls,  boldly  engages  the 
enemy  of  his  king  and  country  ?  None  will  dispute  the  courage  of 
the  excellent  Colonel  Gardiner,  who  was  slain  at  the  battle  of  Preston 
Pans,  in  the  rebellion  in  1745.  Yet  he  once  refused  a  challenge, 
with  this  dignified  remark :  '  I  fear  sinning,  though  I  do  not  fear  fight- 
ing.'* The  fact  is,  that  fighting  a  duel  is  so  far  from  being  a  proof  of 
a  man's  possessing  true  courage,  that  it  is  an  infallible  mark  of  his 
cowardice.  For  he  is  influenced  by  '  the  fear  of  man,'  whose  praise 
he  loveth  more  than  the  praise  of  God." 

*  "  See  Doddridge's  Life  of  Colonel  Gardiner,  an  interesting  piece  of  biography,  worthy  the 
perusal  of  every  officer  in  the  army  and  navy." 


REVIEW 

OF 

ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  some  sincere  friends  of  religion,  that  a  republi- 
cation of  the  following  strictures  might  have  its  use  in  certain  quarters, 
where  the  literary  journal  in  which  they  first  appeared  may  possibly  not 
have  extended.  The  writer  of  these  remarks  has  nothing  in  view  but 
the  promotion  of  Christian  charity,  the  vindication  of  calumniated  inno- 
cence, and  the  counteraction  of  those  insidious  arts  by  which  designing 
men  are  seeking  to  advance  their  personal  interest,  or  those  of  a  party, 
at  the  expense  of  truth  and  justice.  How  far  the  author  here  animad- 
verted upon  falls  under  this  description,  must  be  left  to  the  decision  of 
an  impartial  public.  If  it  be  thought  that  more  commendation  ought 
to  have  been  given  in  the  following  strictures  to  those  parts  of  the 
work  which  are  confessedly  unexceptionable,  the  writer  must  be  al- 
lowed to  remark,  that  the  effect  of  what  is  good  in  the  performance  is 
entirely  defeated  by  the  large  infusion  of  what  is  of  an  opposite  quality. 
In  appreciating  the  merits  of  a  writer,  the  general  tendency  of  his 
work  should  be  principally  regarded,  without  suffering  the  edge  of 
censure  to  be  abated  by  such  a  mixture  of  truth  as  only  serves  to  give 
a  safer  and  wider  circulation  to  misrepresentation  and  falsehood. 

It  has  been  deemed  a  capital  omission  in  the  following  critique,  that 
no  notice  is  taken  of  the  author's  illiberal  treatment  of  the  puritans. 
This  omission  arose  partly  from  a  wish  to  avoid  prolixity,  and  partly 
from  an  apprehension  it  would  lead  to  a  discussion  not  perfectly  rele- 
vant to  the  matter  in  hand.  It  would  be  no  difficult  matter  to  constnict 
such  a  defence  of  the  puritans  as  would  leave  this  or  any  other  author 
very  little  to  reply ;  but  to  do  justice  to  the  subject  would  require  a 
deduction  of  facts,  and  a  series  of  arguments,  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  limits  to  which  we  are  confined.  To  oppose  assertion  to  assertion, 
and  invective  to  invective,  could  answer  no  end  but  the  reviving  ani- 
mosities which  Ave  should  be  happy  to  see  for  ever  extinguished.  The 
controversy  between  the  puritans  and  their  opponents  turns  entirely  on 
these  two  questions : — Has  any  religious  society,  assuming  the  name 
of  a  church,  a  right  to  establish  new  terms  of  communion,  distinct 
from  those  enjoyed  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  ?     Admitting  they  have 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  255 

"such  a  right,  ought  these  terms  to  consist  in  things  which  the  imposers 
acknowledge  to  be  indifferent,  and  the  party  on  whom  they  are  en- 
joined look  upon  as  sinful?  Is  not  this  a  palpable  violation  of  the 
apostolical  injunction,  "  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith  receive  ye,  but 
not  to  doubtful  disputations  ?"  We  are  persuaded  we  speak  the  senti- 
ments of  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  Church  of  England,  when  we 
assert  that  the  basis  of  communion  was  made  narrower  at  the  Refor- 
mation than  is  consistent  with  the  dictates  of  Christian  charity  or 
sound  policy,  and  that  the  puritans  were  treated  with  a  severity  alto- 
gether unjustifiable.  The  author  of  Zeal  Avithout  Innovation  declares 
himself  "  dissatisfied  with  the  trite  remark  that  there  were  faults  on 
both  sides,  when  the  guilt  of  aggression  rests  so  clearly  on  the  heads 
of  the  nonconformists."  To  infer  their  guilt  as  aggressors  because 
they  were  the  first  to  complain,  is  begging  the  question  at  issue.  Be- 
fore we  are  entitled  to  criminate  them  on  tliis  head,  it  is  requisite  to 
inquire  into  the  justice  of  their  complaints.  They  who  first  discover 
a  truth,  are  naturally  the  first  to  impugn  the  opposite  error.  They 
who  find  themselves  aggrieved  are  necessarily  the  first  to  complain. 
So  that  to  attach  culpability  to  the  party  which  betrays  the  first  symp- 
toms of  dissatisfaction,  without  further  inquiry,  is  to  confer  on  specula- 
tive error,  and  on  practical  tyranny,  a  claim  to  unalterable  perpetuity — a 
doctrine  well  suited  to  the  mean  and  slavish  maxims  inculcated  by  this 
writer.  The  learned  Warburton  was  as  little  satisfied  as  himself  with 
the  trite  remark  of  there  being  faults  on  both  sides,  but  for  an  opposite 
reason.  "  It  would  be  hard,"  he  affirms,  "  to  say  who  are  most  to 
blame ;  those  who  oppose  established  authority  for  things  indifferent, 
or  that  authority  which  rigidly  insists  on  them,  and  will  abate  nothing 
for  the  sake  of  tender,  misinformed  consciences  :  I  say  it  would  be  hard 
to  solve  this,  had  not  the  apostle  done  it  for  us,  where  he  says,  'We 
that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  not  to 
please  oursehes.''  '  I  myself,'  says  he,  '  do  so,  and  all  for  the  gos- 
pel's sake.'  This  is  the  man  who  tells  us  he  had  fought  a  good  fight 
and  overcome.  And  we  may  believe  him  ;  for  in  this  contention,  he 
is  always  the  conqueror  who  submits." 

When  the  question  is  fairly  put,  whether  a  tender  conscience,  admit- 
ting it  to  be  erroneous,  shall  be  forced,  or  the  imposition  of  things 
confessedly  indifferent  be  dropped,  it  can  surely  require  but  little  saga- 
city to  return  a  decisive  answer.  The  arguments  which  induced  Locke 
to  give  his  suffrage  in  favour  of  the  nonconformists,  the  reasons  which 
prevailed  on  Baxter  and  on  Howe  to  quit  stations  of  usefulness  in  the 
church,  and  doom  themselves  to  an  unprofitable  inactivity,  will  not  easily 
be  deemed  light  or  frivolous.  The  English  nation  has  produced  no 
men  more  exempt  from  the  suspicion  of  weakness  or  caprice  than 
these. 

Desirous  of  composing  rather  than  inflaming  the  dissensions  which 
unliappily  subsist  among  Christians,  we  decline  entering  further  on  this 
topic,  heartily  praying,  with  the  apostle,  that  "  grace  may  be  with  ail 
them  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity." 


REVIEW. 


Zeal  without  Innovation :  or,  the  Presetit  State  of  Religion  and  Morals 
considered,  with  a  View  to  the  Dispositions  and  Measures  required 
for  its  Improvement.  To  which  is  subjoined  an  Address  to  young 
Clergymen,  intended  to  guard  them  against  some  prevalent  Errors^ 
1808. 

There  are  some  works  which  require  to  be  viewed  only  in  a  hterary 
Ught.  No  important  principles  are  discussed,  nor  any  momentous 
interests  at  stake.  When  this  is  the  case,  nothing  more  is  necessary 
than  for  a  reviewer  to  exhibit  the  author's  plan,  and  to  give  an  impartial 
judgment  on  the  ability  with  which  it  is  executed.  If  the  merit  of  the 
performance  be  very  conspicuous,  it  is  the  less  necessary  to  multiply 
words  in  order  to  show  it ;  and  if  it  have  little  or  none,  it  need  not  be 
conducted  to  the  land  of  forgetfulness  with  the  pomp  of  criticism.  For 
this  reason  the  utility  of  periodical  criticism  may,  in  a  literary  view,  be 
fairly  questioned  ;  as  it  seems  like  an  attempt  to  anticipate  the  decision 
of  the  public,  and  prematurely  to  adjust  those  pretensions  which,  if  left 
to  itself,  it  will  be  sure  to  adjust  in  time  with  the  most  perfect  impar- 
tiality. A  reviewer  may  give  a  momentary  popularity  to  what  deserves 
to  be  forgotten,  but  he  can  neither  withhold  nor  bestow  a  lasting  fame. 
Cowper,  we  will  venture  to  say,  is  not  the  less  admired  because  the 
Critical  Review,  with  its  usual  good  taste  and  discernment,  could 
discover  in  him  no  traces  of  poetic  genius. 

There  are  other  works,  which  owe  their  importance  more  to  the 
subjects  on  which  they  treat,  and  their  tendency  to  inflame  the  preju- 
dices and  strike  in  with  the  humour  of  the  public,  than  to  any  extra- 
ordinary ability.  Their  infection  renders  them  formidable.  They  are 
calculated  to  increase  the  violence  of  an  epidemic  disease.  The  matter 
of  contagion  ought  not  to  be  slighted  on  account  of  the  meanness  of  the 
vehicle  by  which  it  is  transmitted.  We  are  sorry  to  be  under  the 
necessity  of  classing  the  performance  before  us  with  works  of  that 
nature ;  but  our  conviction  of  its  deserving  that  character  must  be  our 
apology  for  bestowing  a  degree  of  attention  upon  it  to  which  it  is  not 
otherwise  entitled.  The  author's  professed  design  is  to  present  a  view 
of  the  state  of  religion  and  morals,  and  to  suggest  such  remedies  as  are 
best  adapted  to  correct  the  disorder  under  which  they  languish.  A 
more  noble  and  important  undertaking  cannot  be  conceived.  We  have 
only  to  lament  that  in  the  pursuit  of  it  he  betrays  so  many  mean  par- 
tialities and  ungenerous  prejudices  as  utterly  disqualify  him  from  doing 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  26? 

justice  to  the  subject.  While  we  would  wish  to  give  hiin  credit  for 
some  portion  of  good  intention,  we  are  firmly  convinced  thai  had  his  eye 
been  single,  his  ivhule  body  had  been  more  full  of  light.  In  an  attempt 
to  trace  the  causes  of  degeneracy  in  religion  and  morals,  and  to  point 
out  the  proper  correctives,  nothing  is  more  requisite  than  a  large  and 
catholic  spirit,  totally  emancipated  from  the  shackles  of  party,  joined 
with  extensive  knowledge  and  a  discriminating  judgment.  In  the  first 
of  these  qualities  the  author  is  lamentably  deficient.  He  looks  at 
every  thing  so  entirely  through  the  medium  of  party,  that  though  he 
cannot  be  said  to  be  absolutely  blind,  he  is  quite  incapable  of  seeing 
afar  off.  His  remarks  are  often  shrewd, — such  as  indicate  a  mind 
awake  and  attentive  to  the  scenes  which  have  passed  before  him.  He 
is  sometimes  acute,  never  comprehensive ;  accurate  in  details,  with 
little  capacity  for  tracing  the  consequences  and  unfolding  the  energy 
of  general  principles.  While  the  title  of  the  work  leads  us  to  expect 
his  attention  would  be  entirely  directed  to  the  best  means  of  promoting 
the  moral  improvement  of  mankind,  the  watchful  reader  will  perceive 
there  are  subordinate  objects  which  he  is  at  least  equally  solicitous  to 
advance.  There  is  a  complication  in  his  views,  a  wheel  within  a  v:hecl, 
quite  incompatible  with  simplicity  of  mind  and  perfect  purity  of  inten- 
tion. There  appears  too  much  reason  to  regard  him  as  an  artful, 
bigoted  partisan,  acting  under  the  disguise  of  a  pliilanthropist  and  a 
reformer.  Severe  as  this  censure  may  seem,  we  are  persuaded  our 
readers  will  acknowledge  its  justice  when  they  are  apprized  of  the 
leading  statements  and  positions  contained  in  this  singular  work. 

The  author  sets  out  with  descanting  on  the  state  of  religion  in  this 
country,  which  he  represents  as  very  deplorable  :  in  proof  of  this,  he 
adduces,  among  other  facts,  the  violation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath 
and  the  prevailing  neglect  of  public  worship.  As  these  symptoms  of 
degeneracy  are  not  found  in  an  equal  degree  among  dissenters  and 
Methodists,  he  is  led  by  the  course  of  his  subject  to  notice  the  state 
of  religion  among  them,  where  he  acknowledges  there  is  no  room  to 
complain  of  a  deficiency  of  zeal.  He  does  not  affect  to  deny  that 
their  teachers  exhibit  the  great  truths  of  Christianity  with  energy  and 
effect,  and  that  much  good  has  resulted  from  their  labours.  We  should 
naturally  suppose  a  pious  man  would  here  find  ground  for  satisfaction, 
and  that,  however  he  might  regret  the  mixture  of  error  with  useful 
efforts,  he  would  rejoice  to  perceive  that  real  and  important  good  was 
done  anywhere.  It  is  but  justice  to  him  to  let  him  convey  his  feelings 
on  this  subject  in  his  own  words. 

"  From  the  sad  state  of  things  represented  in  the  preceding  section, 
many  turn  with  pleasure  to  what  is  passing  among  our  separatists, 
whose  places  of  worship  generally  exhibit  a  very  different  scene  to  our 
parish  churches.  Here  there  appears  to  be  some  life  and  eflect.  The 
officiating  minister  has  not  half-empty  pews  to  harangue,  but  a  crowded 
auditory  '  hanging  on  his  lips.'  Whether,  however,  in  what  is  now 
before  us  we  shall  find  no  cause  of  uneasiness,  when  all  its  circum- 
stances are  considered,  admits  of  great  doubt. 

"  It  cannot  be  denied,  that  with  all   the  fanaticism  charged  on 

Vol.  II.— R 


258  REVIEW  OF 

separatists  (and  it  is  to  be  feared  with  great  truth  in  some  instances), 
many  a  profligate  has  been  reclaimed,  and  much  good  in  other  ways 
has  been  done  among  the  lower  orders  by  the  labours  of  their  ministers. 
From  these  circumstances,  and  the  known  ignorance  and  dissoluteness 
of  the  times,  many,  without  the  least  degree  of  adverse  intention  to  our 
established  church,  have  in  the  simplicity  of  their  hearts  concurred  in 
forwarding  the  endeavours  of  the  separatists.  And  hence  it  is  that  in 
all  the  more  populous  parts  of  the  country,  we  see  that  multitude  of 
dissenting  chapels,  which  of  late  years  has  increased  and  is  still 
increasing. 

"  To  some  good  men,  free  from  all  prejudice  against  the  Church 
of  England,  it  is  matter  of  no  regret  that  the  number  of  separatists 
increases,  provided  there  be  with  this  circumstance  an  increasing 
regard  to  Christianity.  With  such  persons  all  consideration  of  forms 
and  modes  of  worship  is  sunk  in  the  greater  importance  of  genuine 
faith  and  piety.  But  it  enters  not  in  the  thoughts  of  such  persons 
that  '  tares  may  spring  up  with  the  wheat,'  and  that  what  at  present 
has  a  good  effect  may  operate  to  the  production  of  something  hereafter 
of  a  very  different  nature.  Now  such  we  conceive  to  be  the  nature 
of  the  case  before  us.  We  have  reason  to  apprehend  ill  consequences 
from  increasing  separatism,  with  whatever  zeal  for  important  truths, 
and  with  whatever  success  in  propagating  them  it  be  at  present 
accompanied. 

"And  first,  it  may  be  observed  that  it  goes  to  the  annihilation 
of  the  established  church  as  a  national  institution.  The  bulk  of 
every  newly-raised  congregation  of  separatists  is  composed  of  per- 
sons educated  within  the  pale  of  the  Church  of  England.  Of 
these  many  are  heads  of  families,  or  likely  to  become  so.  By  com- 
mencing dissenters,  they  and  their  posterity,  however  multiplied,  are 
broken  off  from  the  national  church.  These  detachments  from  the 
establishment,  going  on  as  they  have  done  of  late  years,  must  conse- 
quently increase  the  number  of  those  who  prefer  a  differently  consti- 
tuted church ;  and  these  may  in  time  amount  to  such  a  majority  as  to 
render  it  again  a  question  with  those  in  power,  whether  the  Church 
of  England  shall  any  longer  have  the  support  of  the  state." — Pp.  14-17. 

That  the  increase  of  dissenters,  in  itself  considered,  cannot  be  a 
pleasing  circumstance  to  a  conscientious  churchman  is  certain ;  and 
if  this  is  all  the  author  means  to  say,  he  talks  very  idly.  The  true 
question  evidently  is,  whether  the  good  accruing  from  the  labours 
of  dissenters  is  a  proper  subject  of  congratulation,  although  it  may  be 
attended  with  this  incidental  consequence,  an  increased  separation  from 
the  established  church.  In  a  word,  is  the  promotion  of  genuine  Chris- 
tianity, or  the  advancement  of  an  external  communion,  the  object  prima- 
rily to  be  pairsued  ?  Whatever  excellence  may  be  ascribed  to  our  national 
establishment  by  its  warmest  admirers,  still  it  is  a  human  institution — 
an  institution  to  which  the  first  ages  of  the  church  were  strangers,  to 
which  Christianity  was  in  no  degree  indebted  for  its  original  success, 
and  the  merit  of  which  must  be  brought  to  the  test  of  utility.  It  is  in 
the  order  of  means.     As  an  expedient  devised  by  the  wisdom  of  our 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  259 

ancestors  for  promoting  true  religion,  it  is  entitled  to  support  just  as 
far  as  it  accomplishes  its  end.  This  end,  however,  is  found  in  some 
instances  to  be  accomplished  by  means  which  are  of  a  diflerent 
description.  A  fire  v/hich  threatens  immediate  destruction  is  happily- 
extinguished  before  it  has  had  time  to  extend  its  ravages ;  but  it  is 
extinguished  by  persons  Avho  have  volunteered  their  services,  without 
waiting  for  the  engineers  who  act  under  the  direction  of  the  police. 
Here  is  zeal,  but  unfortimately  accompanied  with  innovatioji,  at  which 
our  author  is  greatly  chagrined.  How  closely  has  he  copied  the 
example  of  St.  Paul,  who  rejoiced  that  Christ  was  preached,  though 
from  envy  and  contention !  With  him  the  promulgation  of  Divine 
truth  was  an  object  so  mucli  at  heart,  that  he  was  glad  to  see  it 
accomplished  even  from  the  most  criminal  motives  and  by  the  most 
unworthy  instruments.  With  our  author,  the  dissemination  of  the 
same  truth,  by  some  of  the  best  of  men,  and  from  the  purest  motives, 
is  matter  of  lamentation  and  regret.  It  requires  little  attention  to 
perceive  he  has  been  taught  in  a  different  school  from  tlie  apostle,  and 
studied  under  a  different  master. 

The  eternal  interests  of  mankind  are  either  mere  chimeras,  or  they 
are  matters  of  infinite  importance  ;  compared  with  which,  the  success 
of  any  party,  the  increase  of  any  external  communion  whatever,  is 
mere  dust  in  the  balance  ;  and  for  this  plain  reason,  that  the  promotion  of 
these  interests  is  the  very  end  of  Christianity  itself.  However  divided 
good  men  may  have  been  with  respect  to  the  propriety  of  legislative 
interference  in  the  affairs  of  religion,  the  argument;^  by  which  they 
have  supported  their  respective  opinions  have  been  uniformly  drawn 
from  the  supposed  tendency  of  such  interference,  or  the  contrary,  to 
advance  the  moral  improvement  of  mankind ;  and,  supposing  this  to 
be  ascertahied,  the  superior  merit  of  the  system  to  which  that  tendency 
belongs  was  considered  as  decided.  Viewed  in  this  light,  the  problem 
is  extensave,  affording  scope  for  much  investigation  ;  while  the  authority 
of  religion  remains  unimpaired,  and  the  disputants  on  each  side  are 
left  at  liberty  to  indulge  the  most  enlarged  sentiments  of  candour 
towards  each  other.  Such  were  the  principles  on  which  Hooker  and 
the  ablest  of  his  successors  rested  their  defence  of  the  established 
church.  The  high  church  party,  of  which  Mr.  Daubeny  may  be 
looked  upon  as  the  present  leader,  have  taken  different  grounds. 
Their  system  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  popery,  faintly  disguised, 
and  adapted  to  the  meridian  of  England.  The  writer  before  us, 
without  avowing  the  sentiments  of  Daubeny,  displays  nearly  the  same 
intolerance  and  bigotry,  under  this  peculiar  disadvantage,  that  his 
views  want  the  cohesion  of  system,  his  bigotry  the  support  of  princi- 
ple. This  formal  separation  of  the  interests  of  the  church  from  those 
of  true  religion  must  inevitably  produce  the  most  deplorable  conse- 
quences. VVill  the  serious  and  conscientious  part  of  the  public  be  led 
to  form  a  favourable  opinion  of  a  religious  community,  by  hearing  it 
avowed  by  her  champions  that  men  had  better  be  suffered  eternally  to 
perish  thaif  to  find  salvation  out  of  her  pale  i  Will  they  not  naturally 
ask  what  those  higher  ends  can  be,  in  coraparison  of  which  the  eternal 

R2 


260  REVIEW  OF 

welfare  of  a  large  portion  of  our  fellow-creatures  is  deemed  a  trifle  ? 
Gould  such  a  spirit  be  supposed  generally  prevalent  in  the  clergy  of 
the  established  church,  it  would  at  once  lose  all  that  is  sacred  in  their 
eyes,  and  be  looked  upon  as  a  mere  combination  to  gain  possession 
of  power  and  emolument  under  pretence  of  religion.  We  are  mistaken 
if  much  mischief  has  not  already  accrued  from  the  indulgence  of  this 
spirit.  It  has  envenomed  the  ill  qualities  naturally  generated  by  the 
domination  of  a  party.  It  has  produced  serious  injury  to  the  church, 
by  imboldening  men  to  appear  in  her  defence  who  bring  nothing  into 
the  controversy  but  overweening  pride,  ceremonial  hypocrisy,  and 
priestly  insolence.  Haughty,  contemptuous  airs,  a  visible  disdain  of 
the  scruples  of  tender  consciences,  and  frequently  of  piety  itself,  except 
under  one  garb  and  fashion,  have  been  too  generally  assumed  by  her 
champions.  These  features  have  given  inexpressible  disgust  to  pious 
and  candid  minds ;  hurt,  as  they  well  may  be,  to  see  a  religious  com- 
munity, however  numerous  or  respectable,  continually  vaunting  itself, 
laying  exclusive  claims  to  purity  and  orthodoxy,  and  seeming  to  con- 
sider it  as  a  piece  of  condescension  to  suffer  any  other  denomination 
to  subsist.  They  cannot  dismiss  it  from  their  minds  that  humility  is  a 
virtue  proper  to  a  church  as  well  as  to  an  individual,  and  that  ecclesi- 
astical pride  may  happen  to  be  as  offensive  to  Heaven  as  pride  of  any 
other  kind.  In  the  Church  of  Rome  these  qualities  have  been  ever 
conspicuous  ;  but  finding  nothing  of  this  sort,  in  an  equal  degree,  in  any 
other  Protestant  communion,  and  recollecting  that  "  the  lofty  looks  of 
men  shall  be  humbled,  and  the  haughtiness  of  men  be  made  low,"  one 
naturally  feels  some  apprehension  that  they  may  not  pass  unpunished, 
though  they  are  found  in  the  precincts  of  a  cathedral. 

Our  author  derives  no  satisfaction  from  the  acknowledged  success 
of  dissenters  in  "  turning  sinners  from  the  error  of  their  way,"  from 
an  apprehension  that  tlieir  success  may  eventually  prove  injurious  to 
the  establishment.  He  pretends  to  foresee,  from  this  cause,  a  con- 
tinual transfer  of  hearers  from  the  church  to  the  conventicle.  We 
beg  leave  to  ask  the  writer,  how  such  a  consequence  can  ensue,  but 
from  the  superior  zeal  and  piety  of  sectaries  1  To  suppose  that  with 
only  an  equal  share  of  these  qualities  they  will  be  able  to  make 
successful  inroads  on  the  church,  is  to  abandon  the  defence  of  the 
hierarchy  altogether ;  since  this  is  acknowledging  a  radical  defect  in 
the  system,  which  operates  as  a  dead  weight  on  its  exertions,  and  dis- 
qualifies it  for  maintaining  its  ground  against  rivals ;  that,  in  short, 
instead  of  being  the  most  efficacious  mode  of  exhibiting  and  impressing 
revealed  truth,  it  is  intrinsically  weak  and  ineffectual.  For  that 
system  must  surely  be  acknowledged  to  be  so  which  is  incapable  of 
interesting  the  people,  and  which,  by  rendering  public  worship  less 
attractive,  produces  a  general  preference  of  a  different  mode.  To 
suppose  this  to  be  the  case  is  to  suppose  something  essentially  wrong, 
which  should  be  immediately  examined  and  corrected.  On  this 
supposition  the  men  are  acquitted,  the  system  is  arraigned.  As  this, 
however,  is  far  from  being  the  opinion  of  the  author,  the  'conclusion 
turns  with  irresistible  force,  that  a  permanent  increase  of  dissenters 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  261 

can  only  arise  from  their  superior  piety  and  zeal.  Now,  these  are 
really,  in  our  opinion,  qualities  too  valuable  to  be  dispensed  wiili, 
whatever  interests  they  may  obstruct.  Regretting,  deeply  as  we  may, 
in  common  with  our  author,  that  they  should  have  formed  an  alliance 
so  unfortunate,  we  must  still  tliink  it  better,  not  only  for  their  posses- 
sors, but  for  the  world  at  large,  for  them  to  be  found  even  here  than 
to  have  no  existence  at  all ;  and  it  is  upon  this  point  we  are  at  issue 
with  this  conscientious  reformer.  For  our  parts,  we  are  really  so  old- 
fashioned  and  puritanical,  that  we  had  rather  behold  men  awakened 
and  converted  arhong  dissenters  and  Methodists,  than  see  them  sleep 
the  sleep  of  death  in  the  arms  of  an  establishment. 

But  our  author,  it  seems,  is  filled  with  pious  alarm  for  the  cause 
of  orthodoxy,  from  the  increasing  separation  from  the  church.  "  By 
the  sound  doctrine  its  instituted  forms  express,  it  will,"  he  tells  us, 
"  as  long  as  it  stands,  be  a  witness  to  the  truth,  in  periods  the  most 
barren  of  ministerial  qualification  ;  a  rallying  point  to  all  truly  Chris- 
tian pastors  ;  and  an  accredited  voucher  for  the  purity  of  their  instruc- 
tion.''^— P.  17.  How  much  were  the  primhive  Christians  to  be  pitied, 
who  were  unhappily  destitute  of  any  such  "  voucher ;"  and  had  nothing 
to  secure  the  permanence  of  truth  but  the  promised  presence  of  Christ, 
the  illummation  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  liglu  of  the  Scriptures — poor 
substitutes,  undoubtedly,  for  the  solid  basis  of  creeds  and  formularies  ! 
We  should  readily  concur  with  the  author  in  his  views  of  the  security 
derived  from  the  subscription  of  articles,  if  we  could  forget  a  few 
stubborn  facts,  which  we  beg  leave  humbly  to  recall  to  his  recollection. 
Is  it  not  a  fact,  that  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  assent  and  consent 
signified  by  subscription  have  been  the  subject  of  a  very  thorny  con- 
troversy, in  which  more  ill  faith  and  chicane  have  been  displayed  than 
were  ever  known  out  of  the  school  of  the  Jesuits ;  and  that  the  issue 
of  this  controversy  has  been  to  establish  very  generally  the  doctrine 
of  Paley,  that  none  are  excluded  by  it  but  Quakers,  Papists,  and 
Baptists  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact,  that  the  press  is  teeming  every  week  with 
publications  of  the  most  acrimonious  description,  written  by  professed 
churchmen  against  persons  who  have  incurred  this  acrimony  merely 
by  their  attachment  to  these  articles  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact,  that  the  doctrines 
they  exhibit  are  so  scorned  and  detested  in  this  country,  that  whoever 
seriously  maintains  them  is  stigmatized  with  the  name  of  "  Methodist  ?" 
and  that  that  part  of  the  clergy  who  preach  them  are,  for  that  reason 
alone,  more  insulted  and  despised  by  their  brethren  than  even  the 
dissenters  themselves  1  It  is  with  peculiar  effrontery  that  this  author 
insists  on  subscription  to  articles  as  a  sufficient  security  for  the  purity 
of  religious  instruction,  when  it  is  the  professed  object  of  his  work  to 
recall  his  contemporaries  to  that  purity.  If  he  means  that  the 
"  voucher"  he  speaks  of  answers  its  purpose  because  it  is  credited, 
he  is  plainly  laughing  at  the  simplicity  of  the  people :  if  he  means  to 
assert  it  is  entitled  to  credit,  M'e  must  request  him  to  reflect  how  he 
can  vindicate  himself  from  tlie  charge  of  "  speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy." 

A  long  course  of  experience  has  clearly  demonstrated  the  inefficacy 
of  creeds  and  confessions  to  perpetuate  religious  belief.     Of  this  the 


362  REVIEW  OF 

only  faithful  depository  is,  not  that  which  is  "  written  with  ink,"  but 
on  the  "  fleshly  tables  of  the  heart."  The  spirit  of  error  is  too  subtile 
and  volatile  to  be  held  by  such  chains.  Whoever  is  acquainted  with 
ecclesiastical  history  must  know,  that  public  creeds  and  confessions 
have  occasioned  more  controversies  than  they  have  composed ;  and 
that  when  they  ceased  to  be  the  subject  of  dispute  they  have  become 
antiquated  and  obsolete.  A  vast  majority  of  the  dissenters  of  the 
present  day  hold  precisely  the  same  religious  tenets  which  the  puritans 
did  two  centuries  ago,  because  it  is  the  instruction  they  have  uniformly 
received  from  their  pastors  ;  and  for  the  same  reason  the  articles  of  the 
national  church  are  almost  effaced  from  the  minds  of  its  members, 
because  they  have  long  been  neglected  or  denied  by  the  majority 
of  those  who  occupy  its  pulpits.  We  have  never  heard  of  the  church 
of  Geneva  altering  its  confession,  but  we  know  that  Voltaire  boasted 
there  was  not  in  his  time  a  Calvinist  in  the  city ;  nor  have  we  heard 
of  any  proposed  amendment  in  the  creed  of  the  Scotch,  yet  it  is  certain 
the  doctrines  of  that  creed  are  preached  by  a  rapidly  decreasing 
minority  of  the  Scottish  clergy.  From  these  and  similar  facts  we 
may  fairly  conclude,  that  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  with  or  without 
subscription,  are  sure  to  perpetuate  themselves  where  they  are  faithfully 
preached  ;  but  that  the  mere  circumstance  of  their  being  subscribed 
will  neither  secure  their  being  preached  nor  believed. 

"  Separatism,"  says  the  author,  "  has  wo  fixed  or  perpetual  character : 
what  it  is  at  present  we  may  by  attentive  observation  be  able  to 
pronounce ;  but  no  human  foresight  can  ascertain  what  it  will  be 
hereafter.  Though  now,  in  its  numerous  chapels,  the  soundest 
doctrine  should  be  heard,  we  have  no  security  that  they  will  not  become 
the  schools  of  heresy.  Here,  if  the  licentious  teacher  get  a  footing, 
he  moulds  the  whole  system  of  ministration  to  his  views ;  not  a 
prayer,  not  a  psalm,  not  a  formulary  of  any  kind  but  in  this  case  will 
become  the  vehicle  of  error." — Pp.  17,  18. 

How  far,  in  creatures  so  liable  to  mistake,  a  fixed  and  perpetual 
character  is  an  enviable  attribute,  we  shall  not  stay  to  inquire ;  with 
what  right  it  is  claimed  on  this  occasion  it  is  not  very  difficult  to 
determine.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  will  unquestionably  always 
remain  the  same  ;  that  is,  they  will  always  be  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  : 
but  it  is  not  quite  so  certain  that  they  are  imiversally  believed ;  much 
less  that  they  will  always  continue  to  be  so ;  and  least  of  all,  that 
after  having  ceased  to  be  believed,  they  will  receive  the  sanction  of 
every  successive  legislature.  For  our  parts,  such  is  our  simplicity, 
that  when  we  read  of  a  fixed  and  perpetual  character,  our  attention  is 
always  wandering  to  men,  to  some  mode  of  thinking  or  feeling  to 
which  such  perpetuity  belongs  ;  instead  of  resting  in  the  useful  contem- 
plation of  pen,  ink,  and  paper.  With  every  disposition,  however,  to 
do  the  author  justice,  we  have  some  fear  for  the  success  of  his  argu- 
ment ;  suspecting  the  dissenters  will  be  ready  to  reply,  "  Our  pastors 
cordially  embrace  the  doctrine  contained  in  your  articles ;  and  as  this 
cannot  be  affirmed  of  the  majority  of  yours,  the  question  of  perpetuity 
is  reduced  to  this  amusing  theorem,— In  which  of  two  given  situations 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  263 

will  a  doctrine  last  the  longest — where  it  is  believed  without  being 
subscribed,  or  where  it  is  subscribed  without  being  believed  ?" 

"  Every  addition  separatism  makes  to  its  supporters  alters  the  propor- 
tion existing  in  this  country  between  the  monarchical  and  the  democratic 
spirit ;  either  of  which  preponderating  to  a  considerable  degree,  might 
be  productive  of  the  most  serious  consequences.  For  it  is  certain,  that 
as  our  church-establishment  is  favourable  to  monarchy,  so  is  the 
constitution  of  our  dissenting  congregations  to  democracy.  The  latter 
principle  is  cherished  in  all  communities,  where  the  power  resides  not 
in  one,  or  a  few,  but  is  shared,  in  certain  proportions,  among  all  the 
members ;  which  is  the  case  in  most  of  the.  religious  societies  under 
consideration.  Let  it  be  remembered,  then,  that  if  religion  increase  in 
this  way,  there  is  that  increasing  with  it  which  is  not  religion  ;  there 
is  something  springing  up  which  is  of  a  difi'erent  nature,  and  which 
will  be  sure  to  stand,  whether  that  better  thing  with  which  it  may  grow 
do  or  not." — P.  20. 

The  equal  justice  it  is  our  duty  to  maintain  obliges  us  to  notice 
another  aspersion  which  the  author  casts  upon  dissenters. 

In  this  statement  the  author  has  exhibited  his  usual  inattention  to 
facts.  That  the  people  had,  in  the  first  ages,  a  large  share  in  ecclesi- 
astical proceedings,  and  that  their  officers  were  chosen  by  themselves, 
is  incontrovertibly  evident,  as  well  from  Scripture  as  from  the  authentic 
monuments  of  antiquity.  The  Epistles  of  St.  Cyprian,  to  go  no 
further,  are  as  full  in  proof  of  this  point  as  if  they  had  been  written  on 
purpose  to  establish  it.  The  transfer  of  power,  first  from  the  people 
to  their  ministers,  and  afterward  from  them  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
was  a  gradual  work,  not  fully  accomplished  till  many  centuries  had 
elapsed  from  the  Christian  era.  Until  the  conversion  of  Constantine, 
the  Christian  church  was  an  imperium  in  imperio,  a  spiritual  republic, 
subsisting  in  the  midst  of  the  Roman  empire,  on  which  it  was  completely 
independent ;  and  its  most  momentous  affairs  were  directed  by  popular 
suffrage.  Nor  did  it,  in  this  state,  either  excite  the  jealousy  or  endanger 
the  repose  of  the  civil  magistrate  ;  since  the  distinction  between  the 
concerns  of  this  world  and  those  of  another,  so  ably  illustrated  by 
Locke,  taught  the  Christians  of  that  time  to  render  to  Caesar  the  things 
which  are  Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's.  Instructed 
to  yield  obedience  to  princes  for  conscience'  sake,  they  were  not  the 
less  orderly  or  submissive  because  they  declined  their  interference  in 
the  suppression  of  error,  or  the  punishment  of  ecclesiastical  delinquency. 
If  there  be  that  inseparable  connexion  between  political  disaffection 
and  the  exercise  of  popular  rights  in  religion  which  this  writer  contends, 
the  primitive  Christians  must  have  been  in  a  deplorable  state :  since 
it  would  have  been  impossible  for  them  toquiet  the  just  apprehensions 
of  government  without  placing  a  heathen  emperor  at  the  head  of  the 
church.  What  must  we  think  of  the  knowledge  of  a  writer  who  was 
ignorant  of  these  facts ;  of  the  candour  which  suppressed  them  ;  or 
of  the  humanity  which  finds  an  occasion  of  aspersing  his  fellow-christians 
in  what  escaped  the  malignity  of  heathen  persecutors  ! 

The  dissenters  will  not  fail  to  remind  the  writer  that  the  British  is 


264  REVIEW  OP 

a  mixed,  not  an  absolute  monarchy ;  that  the  habit  of  considering  the 
people  as  nothing  is  as  repugnant  to  its  spirit  as  that  of  making  them 
every  thing ;  and  that  to  vest  the  whole  power  in  the  hands  of  one 
person,  without  check  or  control,  is  more  suited  to  the  genius  of  the 
Turkish  than  the  British  government.  And  to  this  retort,  it  must  be 
confessed,  the  conduct  of  the  high  church  party,  who  have  seldom  scru- 
pled to  promulgate  maxims  utterly  subversive  of  liberty,  would  lend  a 
very  colourable  support.  The  whole  topic,  however,  is  invidious, 
absurd,  and  merely  calculated  to  mislead  ;  since  the  constitution  of  the 
Christian  church  is  fixed  by  the  will  of  its  Founder,  the  dictates  of 
which  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  accommodate  or  bend  to  the  views  of 
human  policy.  The  dispute  respecting  ecclesiastical  government  must, 
like  every  other  on  religion,  be  determined,  if  it  ever  be  determined  at 
all,  by  an  appeal  to  Scripture,  illustrated  perhaps  occasionally  by  the 
approved  usages  of  the  earliest  antiquity.  To  connect  political  conse- 
quences with  it,  and  to  make  it  the  instrument  of  exciting  popular 
odium,  is  the  indication  of  a  bad  cause  and  of  a  worse  heart.  After 
the  specimens  our  readers  have  already  had  of  the  author's  spirit,  they 
will  not  be  surprised  to  find  he  is  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  Toleration 
Act,  which  he  complains  has  been  perverted  from  its  purpose  of  afford- 
ing relief  to  tender  consciences  to  that  of  making  dissenters.  We  are 
not  acute  enough  to  comprehend  this  distinction.  We  have  always 
supposed  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  legislature  by  that  act  to 
enable  Protestant  dissenters  to  worship  where  they  pleased,  after  giving 
proper  notice  to  the  magistrate  :  how  their  availing  themselves  of  this 
liberty  can  be  construed  into  an  abuse  of  the  act  we  are  at  a  loss  to 
conceive.  This  writer  would  tolerate  dissenters,  but  not  allow  them 
to  propagate  their  sentiments  ;  that  is,  he  would  permit  them  that  liberty 
of  thinking  which  none  can  restrain,  but  not  of  speaking  and  acting, 
which  are  alone  subject  to  the  operation  of  law. 

It  is  quite  of  a  piece  with  the  narrow  prejudices  of  such  a  man  to 
complain  of  it  as  an  intolerable  hardship,  that  a  minister  of  the  estab- 
lishment is  sometimes  in  danger,  through  the  undistinguishing  spirit  of 
hospitality,  of  being  invited  to  sit  down  with  religionists  of  different 
descriptions ;  and  he  avows  his  manly  resolution  of  going  without  his 
dinner  rather  than  expose  himself  to  such  an  indignity.  It  is  certainly 
a  most  lamentable  thing  to  reflect,  that  a  regular  clergyman  may  pos- 
sibly lose  caste  by  mixing  at  the  hospitable  board  with  some  of  those 
who  will  be  invited  to  the  marriage-supper  of  the  Lamb.  When  Burke 
was  informed  that  Mr.  Godwin  held  gratitude  to  be  a  crime,  he  replied, 
"  I  will  take  care  not  to  be  accessory  to  his  committing  that  crime." 
We  hope  the  lovers  of  hospitality  will  take  the  hint,  and  never  insult 
the  author  of  "  Zeal  without  Innovation"  by  exposing  him  to  the  touch 
of  the  ceremonially  unclean. 

Although  we  have  already  trespassed  on  the  patience  of  our  readers, 
we  cannot  dismiss  this  part  of  the  subject  without  craving  their  indul- 
gence a  little  longer.  We  are  much  concerned  to  witness  the  spirit  of 
intolerance  that  pervades  many  recent  publications.  If  the  uniform 
course  of  experience  can  prove  any  thing,  it  is  that  the  extension  of 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  265 

any  particular  frame  of  church  government  will  of  itself  contribute 
little  to  the  interests  of  vital  Christianity.  Suppose  every  inhabitant 
of  the  kingdom  were  to  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  establishment 
to-morrow,  what  real  accession  would  be  gained  to  the  kingdom  of 
Christ?  Is  there  any  magic  in  the  change  of  a  name  wliich  can  con- 
vert careless,  profane,  irreligious  dissenters  into  devout  and  pious 
churchmen  1  The  virtuous  part  of  them  do  honour  to  the  Christian 
profession  in  the  situation  they  occupy  at  present ;  and  for  the  vicious, 
they  could  only  infect  and  disgrace  the  community  with  which  they 
proposed  to  associate.  What  means  this  incessant  struggle  to  raise 
one  party  on  the  ruins  of  another  ?  this  assumption  of  infallibility,  and 
the  clamorous  demand  for  the  interposition  of  the  legislature,  which  we 
so  often  witness  1  If  the  writers  to  whom  we  allude  will  honestly  tell 
us  they  are  apprehensive  of  their  "  craft"  being  in  danger,  we  will  give 
them  credit  for  sincerity ;  but  to  attempt  to  cover  their  bigotry  under 
the  mask  of  piety  is  too  gross  a  deception.  Were  the  measures  adopted 
for  which  these  men  are  so  violent,  they  would  scarcely  prove  more 
injurious  to  religion  than  to  the  interests  of  the  established  church ;  to 
which  the  accession  of  numbers  would  be  no  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  that  activity  and  spirit  which  are  kept  alive  by  the  neighbourhood 
of  rival  sects.  She  would  suffer  rapid  encroachments  from  infidelity ; 
and  the  indolence  and  secularity  too  incident  to  opulent  establishments 
would  hasten  her  downfall.  Amid  the  increasing  degeneracy  of  the 
clergy,  which  must  be  the  inevitable  effect  of  destroying  the  necessity 
of  vigilance  and  exertion,  the  people  that  now  crowd  the  conventicle 
would  not  repair  to  the  church :  they  would  be  scattered  and  dissi- 
pated, like  water  no  longer  confined  within  its  banks.  In  a  very  short 
time,  we  have  not  the  smallest  doubt,  the  attendance  at  church  would 
be  much  less  than  it  is  now.  A  religion  which,  by  leaving  no  choice, 
can  produce  no  attachment, — a  religion  invested  with  the  stern  rigour 
of  law,  and  associated  in  the  public  mind  and  in  public  practice  with 
prisons,  and  pillories,  and  gibbets, — would  be  a  noble  match,  to  be  sure, 
for  the  subtle  spirit  of  impiety,  and  the  enormous  and  increasing  cor- 
ruption of  the  limes.  It  is  amusing  to  reflect  what  ample  elbow-room 
the  worthy  rector  would  possess  ;  how  freely  he  might  expatiate  in  his 
wide  domain ;  and  how  much  the  effect  of  his  denunciations  against 
schism  would  be  heightened  by  echoing  through  so  large  a  void. 

"  Hie  vasto  rex  jl^olus  antro 
Luctantes  ventos  tempestatesque  sonoras 
Imperio  premit.'' 

The  Gallican  church  no  doubt  looked  upon  it  as  a  signal  triumph 
when  she  prevailed  on  Louis  the  Fourteenth  to  repeal  the  edict  of 
Nantes,  and  to  suppress  the  Protestant  religion.  But  what  was  the 
consequence  ?  Where  shall  we  look,  after  this  period,  for  her  Fene- 
lons  and  her  Pascals — where  for  the  distinguished  monuments  of  piety 
and  learning  which  were  the  glory  of  her  better  days  ?  As  for  piety, 
she  perceived  she  had  no  occasion  for  it  when  there  was  no  lustre  of 
Christian  holiness  surrounding  her ;  nor  for  learning,  when  she  had  no 


266  REVIEW  OF 

longer  any  opponents  to  confute  or  any  controversies  to  maintain. 
She  felt  herself  at  liberty  to  become  as  ignorant,  as  secular,  as  irreli- 
gious as  she  pleased ;  and,  amid  the  silence  and  darkness  she  had 
created  around  her,  she  drew  the  curtains  and  retired  to  rest.  The 
accession  of  numbers  she  gained  by  suppressing  her  opponents  was 
like  the  small  extension  of  length  a  body  acquires  by  death  :  the  feeble 
remains  of  life  were  extinguished,  and  she  lay  a  putrid  corpse,  a  public 
nuisance,  filling  the  air  with  pestilential  exhalations.  Such,  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe,  would  be  the  effect  of  similar  measures  in 
England.  That  union  among  Christians  which  it  is  so  desirable  to 
recover  must,  we  are  persuaded,  be  the  result  of  something  more 
heavenly  and  divine  than  legal  restraints  or  angry  controversies.  Un- 
less an  angel  were  to  descend  for  that  purpose,  the  spirit  of  division 
is  a  disease  which  will  never  be  healed  by  troubling  the  waters.  We 
must  expect  the  cure  from  the  increasing  prevalence  of  religion,  and 
from  a  copious  communication  of  the  Spirit  to  produce  that  event.  A 
more  extensive  diffusion  of  piety  among  all  sects  and  parties  will  be 
the  best  and  only  preparation  for  a  cordial  union.  Christians  will  then 
be  disposed  to  appreciate  their  differences  more  equitably  ;  to  turn  their 
chief  attention  to  points  on  which  they  agree ;  and,  in  consequence  of 
loving  each  other  more,  to  make  every  concession  consistent  with  a 
good  conscience.  Instead  of  wishing  to  vanquish  others,  every  one 
■will  be  desirous  of  being  vanquished  by  the  truth.  An  awful  fear  of 
God  and  an  exclusive  desire  of  discovering  his  mind  will  hold  a  torch 
before  them  in  their  inquiries,  which  will  strangely  illuminate  the  path 
in  which  they  are  to  tread.  In  the  room  of  being  repelled  by  mutual 
antipathy,  they  will  be  insensibly  drawn  nearer  to  each  other  by  the 
ties  of  mutual  attachment.  A  larger  measure  of  the  spirit  of  Christ 
would  prevent  them  from  converting  every  incidental  variation  into  an 
impassable  boundary  ;  or  from  condemning  the  most  innocent  and  lau- 
dable usages  for  fear  of  symbolizing  with  another  class  of  Christians — 
an  odious  spirit,  with  which  the  writer  under  consideration  is  strongly 
impregnated.  The  general  prevalence  of  piety  in  different  commu- 
nities would  inspire  that  mutual  respect,  that  heartfelt  homage  for  tlie 
virtues  conspicuous  in  the  character  of  their  respective  members  which 
"would  urge  us  to  ask  with  astonishment  and  regret.  Why  cannot  we 
be  one  ?  What  is  it  that  obstructs  our  union  ?  Instead  of  maintaining 
the  barrier  which  separates  us  from  each  other,  and  employing  our- 
selves in  fortifying  the  frontiers  of  hostile  communities,  we  should  be 
anxiously  devising  the  means  of  narrowing  the  grounds  of  dispute,  by 
drawing  the  attention  of  all  parties  to  those  fundamental  and  catholic 
principles  in  which  they  concur. 

To  this  we  may  add,  that  a  more  perfect  subjection  to  the  authority 
of  the  great  Head  of  the  church  would  restrain  men  from  inventing  new 
terms  of  communion,  from  lording  it  over  conscience,  or  from  exacting 
a  scrupulous  compliance  with  things  which  the  word  of  God  has  left 
indifferent.  That  sense  of  imperfection  we  ought  ever  to  cherish  would 
incline  us  to  be  looking  up  for  superior  light,  and  make  us  think  it  not 
improbable,  that  in  the  long  night  which  has  befallen  us,  we  have  all 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  267 

more  or  less  mistaken  our  way,  and  have  much  to  learn  and  much  to 
correct.  The  very  idea  of  identifying  a  particular  party  with  ihe  church 
would  be  exploded  ;  the  foolish  clamour  about  schism  hushed  ;  and  no 
one,  however  mean  and  inconsiderable,  be  expected  to  surrender  his 
conscience  to  the  claims  of  ecclesiastical  dominion.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  surely  not  so  obscure  a  book  that  were  its  contents  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  a  hundred  serious,  impartial  men,  it  would  produce  such 
opposite  conclusions  as  must  necessarily  issue  in  their  forming  two  or 
more  separate  communions.  It  is  remarkable,  indeed,  that  the  chief 
points  about  which  real  Christians  are  divided  are  points  on  which  tliat 
volume  is  silent — mere  human  fabrications,  which  the  presumption  of 
men  has  attached  to  the  Christian  system.  A  larger  communication 
of  the  Spirit  of  truth  would  insensibly  lead  Christians  into  a  similar 
train  of  thinking ;  and  being  more  under  the  guidance  of  that  infallible 
Teacher,  they  would  gradually  tend  to  the  same  point,  and  settle  in 
the  same  conclusions.  Without  such  an  influence  as  this,  the  coalescing 
into  one  communion  would  probably  be  productive  of  much  mischief : 
it  certainly  would  do  no  sort  of  good,  since  it  would  be  the  mere  result 
of  intolerance  and  pride  acting  upon  indolence  and  fear. 

During  the  present  disjointed  state  of  things,  then,  nothing  remains 
but  for  every  one  to  whom  the  care  of  any  part  of  the  church  of  Christ 
is  intrusted,  to  exert  himself  to  the  utmost  in  the  promotion  of  vital 
religion,  in  cementing  the  friendship  of  the  good,  and  repressing  with 
a  firm  and  steady  hand  the  heats  and  eruptions  of  party  spirit.  He 
will  find  sufficient  employment  for  his  time  and  his  talents  in  inculcating 
the  great  truths  of  the  gospel,  and  endeavouring  to  "  form  Christ"  in 
his  hearers,  without  blowing  the  flames  of  contention,  or  widening  that 
breach  which  is  already  the  disgrace  and  calamity  of  the  Christian 
name.  Were  our  efforts  uniformly  to  take  this  direction,  there  would 
be  an  identity  in  the  impression  made  by  religious  instruction ;  the 
distortion  of  party  features  would  gradually  disappear  ;  and  Christians 
would  everywhere  approach  towards  that  ideal  beauty  spoken  of  by 
painters,  which  is  combined  of  the  finest  lines  and  traits  conspicuous 
in  individual  forms.  Since  they  have  all  drunk  into  the  same  spirit, 
it  is  manifest  nothing  is  wanting  but  a  larger  portion  of  that  spirit  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  a  solid,  cordial  union.  It  is  to  the  immoderate 
attachment  to  secular  interest,  the  love  of  power,  and  the  want  of  reve- 
rence for  truth,  not  to  the  obscurities  of  revelation,  we  must  impute  the 
unhappy  contentions  among  Christians — maladies  which  nothing  can 
correct  but  deep  and  genuine  piety.  The  true  schismatic  is  not  so 
properly  the  person  who  declines  a  compliance  with  what  he  judges  to 
be  wrong,  though  he  may  be  mistaken  in  that  judgment,  as  the  man 
who,  like  the  author  before  us,  sedulously  employs  every  artifice  to 
alienate  the  affections  of  good  men  from  each  other. 

Having  animadverted  on  the  illiberality  of  this  writer  towards  persons 
of  different  persuasions,  we  now  proceed  to  notice  his  representations 
of  the  state  of  religion,  together  with  his  treatment  of  that  description 
of  the  clergy  with  whom  he  has  been  accustomed  to  associate. 

The  cause  of  religion  he  represents  as  in  a  very  declining  state. 


268  REVIEW  OF 

"  Some  persons  now  living,"  he  says,  "  can  remember  the  time  when 
absence  from  church  was  far  from  being  so  common  as  it  is  now  be- 
come. Then,  the  more  considerable  heads  of  famiUes  were  generally- 
seen  in  the  house  of  God,  with  their  servants  as  well  as  children. 
This  visible  acknowledgment  of  the  importance  of  religion  had  a  good 
effect  on  families  of  inferior  condition :  the  presence  of  the  merchant 
and  his  household  brought  the  tradesman  and  his  family ;  and  the 
example  of  the  latter  induced  his  journeymen  and  out-door  servants  to 
come  to  church.  But  this  is  not  a  description  of  modern  habits.  In 
many  pews,  once  regularly  filled  by  the  entire  household  to  which  they 
belonged,  it  is  now  common  to  see  only  a  small  portion  of  the  family, 
and  often  not  an  individual.  Two  or  three  of  the  younger  branches, 
from  the  female  side  of  the  house,  occasionally  attend,  with  perhaps 
the  mother,  but  without  the  father  and  the  sons :  the  father,  wearied 
with  business,  wants  a  little  relaxation ;  and  to  the  young  men,  not 
suspecting  their  want  of  instruction,  a  rural  excursion  offers  something 
interesting,  while  the  tranquil  service  of  a  church  is  too  tame  an  occu- 
pation for  their  unexhausted  spirits.  Nor  among  the  few  who  attend 
public  worship  are  they  always  the  same  individuals  that  we  see  in 
the  house  of  God.  So  that  it  does  not  appear  to  be  from  steady  prin- 
ciple, and  still  less  from  the  influence  of  parental  authority,  that  some 
of  the  family  are  occasionally  there.  The  children  are  left  to  them- 
selves ;  they  may  go  to  church  if  they  choose  to  do  so  ;  they  incur  no 
displeasure  from  the  father,  they  excite  no  grief  in  his  bosom  if  they 
stay  away.  There  is  no  disreputation  attaching  to  absence.  It  falls 
rather  upon  the  contrary  conduct ;  any  uniform  attendance  on  divine 
worship  being  frequently  considered  a  mark  of  imbecility  or  de- 
mureness. 

"  To  account  for  the  thinness  of  our  parochial  congregations,  some 
allege  that  there  is  not  a  sufficient  quantity  of  naturally  attractive  cir- 
cumstances in  the  ordinary  service  of  the  church.  But  it  is  observa- 
ble, that  where  our  liturgy  is  used  in  its  grandest  form,  the  attendance 
is  as  far  from  being  numerous  as  it  is  elsewhere.  It  might  be  ex- 
pected, and  especially  in  an  age  in  which  a  taste  for  viusic  so  generally 
prevails,  that  in  a  metropolis  containing  near  a  million  of  inhabitants, 
there  might  be  more  persons  drawn  by  the  grandeur  of  cathedral  wor- 
ship to  the  place  where  it  is  performed,  than  could  well  be  accommo- 
dated in  one  church.  The  cathedral  of  London,  however,  presents  no 
such  scene.  With  a  numerous  attendance  of  ministers,  the  finest 
specimens  of  church-music,  and  these  performed  with  that  effect  which 
professional  qualification  gives  to  such  compositions,  the  seats  of  St. 
Paul's  cathedral  are  seldom  half-filled."     Pp.  2-4. 

Though  we  acknowledge  the  truth  of  his  statement  in  a  great  mea- 
sure, we  are  far  from  drawing  from  it  the  inference  he  wishes  to  im- 
press. Whenever  places  of  worship  are  thinly  attended,  at  least  in 
the  established  church,  we  have  uniformly  found  it  to  proceed  from  a 
cause  very  distinct  from  the  general  decay  of  piety :  it  results  from 
the  absence  of  that  sort  of  instruction  which  naturally  engages  the 
attention  and  fixes  the  heart.     In  one  view,  we  are  fully  aware  a  great 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  269 

alteration  has  taken  place  :  an  attachment  to  the  mere  forms  of  religion 
has  much  subsided ;  the  superstitious  reverence  formerly  paid  to  con- 
secrated places  and  a  pompous  ceremonial  has  M'axed  old ;  so  that 
nothing  will  now  command  a  full  attendance  at  places  set  apart  for 
Divine  worship,  but  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  or  of  something,  at 
least,  that  may  be  mistaken  for  it.  Instead  of  concurring  with  the 
author  in  considering  this  as  evincing  the  low  state  of  Christianity 
among  us,  we  are  disposed  to  look  upon  it  in  a  contrary  light,  being 
fully  convinced  that  a  readiness  to  acquiesce  in  the  mere  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  religion,  to  the  neglect  of  tliat  truth  which  sanctifies  the 
church,  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  errors  to  which  men  can  be  ex- 
posed. There  is  something  in  the  constitution  of  human  nature  so 
abhorrent  from  the  absence  of  all  religion,  that  we  are  inclined  to  be- 
lieve more  are  ruined  by  embracing  some  counterfeit  instead  of  the 
true,  than  by  the  rejection  of  true  and  false  altogether.  We  are  not 
sorry,  therefore,  to  learn  that  the  music  at  St.  Paul's  is  not  found  a 
sufficient  substitute  for  "  the  joyful  sound,"  nor  a  numerous  show  of 
ministers  accepted  by  the  people  in  the  room  of  "  Christ  crucified  set 
forth  before  them."  Let  the  truths  which  concern  men's  eternal  sal- 
vation be  faithfully  taught  in  that  noble  edifice,  and  the  complaint  of 
slender  attendance  will  soon  cease.  In  the  mean  time,  of  that  part 
of  the  citizens  who  might  be  expected  to  frequent  the  cathedral,  some 
are  too  gay  and  fashionable  not  to  prefer  the  music  of  the  theatre  and 
the  opera  ;  and  some  are  serious  Christians,  whose  hunger  for  the 
bread  of  life  will  not  be  satisfied  or  diverted  by  the  symphonies  of  an 
organ,  or  the  splendour  of  canonical  dresses. 

He  who  is  resolved  to  see  nothing  but  what  grows  in  his  own  enclo- 
sure, may  report  that  "  all  is  barren,"  though  the  fields  around  him 
bloomed  like  the  garden  of  Eden ;  and  such  is  the  strength  of  this 
writer's  prejudices,  that  it  is  morally  impossible  for  him  to  give  a  just 
representation  of  facts.  In  forming  his  estimate  of  the  state  of  religion, 
he  is  resolved  to  look  only  where  he  knows  nothing  is  to  be  seen ; 
and  absurdly  complains  of  the  want  of  a  crop  where  he  is  conscious 
the  soil  has  never  been  cultivated.  Effects  must  be  looked  for  from 
their  natural  causes :  men  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  nor  figs  of 
thistles ;  nor  are  the  fruits  of  Christianity  to  be  expected  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  gospel.  Notwithstanding  this  writer's  gloomy  prognos- 
tications, we  have  no  doubt  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  making  sensible 
advances  ;  and  in  support  of  this  opinion,  we  adduce  the  wider  exten- 
sion of  religious  truth,  the  multitude  of  places  where  the  gospel  is 
preached  in  its  purity,  the  general  disposition  to  attend  it,  the  estab- 
lishment of  Sunday-schools,  the  circulation,  with  happy  effect,  of 
innumerable  tracts,  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  foreign  lan- 
guages, and  their  more  extensive  communication  to  all  nations,  the 
formation  of  missionary  societies,  the  growing  unanimity  among  Chris- 
tians, and  the  prodigious  increase  of  faithful  ministers  in  the  established 
church.  We  presume  these  facts  may  be  allowed  a  degree  of  weight 
sufl[icient  to  overbalance  the  thin  attendance  at  St.  Paul's.  It  is 
not  a  little  surprising  that  a  writer  who  professes  to  exhibit  a  correct 


270  REVIEW  OF 

idea  of  the  religious  state  of  the  nation,  should  pay  no  attention  to 
these  circumstances,  or  content  himself  with  alluding  to  them  in  terms 
expressive  of  chagrin  and  vexation.  Regarding  the  extensive  institu- 
tions and  the  diffusive  benefits  which  the  efforts  of  serious  Christians 
in  different  connexions  have  produced,  as  a  contraband  article,  not 
entitled  to  be  mentioned  in  the  estimate  of  our  moral  wealth,  he  repre- 
sents us  as  generally  sunk  in  spiritual  sloth  and  poverty.  We  should 
not  learn  from  this  writer  that  attempts  were  making  for  the  univer- 
sal propagation  of  Christianity ;  that  translations  of  the  Scriptures 
were  going  on  in  different  languages ;  or  that  a  zeal  for  the  conver- 
sion of  pagans  had  occasioned  a  poAverful  reaction  at  home,  by  pro- 
ducing efforts  hitherto  unexampled  towards  carrying  the  gospel  into 
the  darkest  corners  of  the  kingdom.  We  should  never  suspect  from 
reading  his  work,  that  any  material  alteration  had  taken  place  within 
the  last  fifty  years,  or  that  ncAV  life  had  been  infused  into  the  professing 
world  beyond  what  we  might  conjecture,  perhaps,  from  certain  indireci 
references  and  dark  insinuations.  Without  noticing  these  facts,  he 
calls  upon  us  to  join  in  pathetic  lamentations  over  the  prostrate  state 
of  religion,  upon  no  better  ground  than  the  neglect  of  places  of  wor- 
ship where  the  gospel  is  not  preached,  and  where  there  is  little  to 
attract  attention  besides  the  privilege  of  hearing  fine  music  and  seeing 
fine  7ninisters  for  nothing.  It  is  a  consolation  to  us  to  be  convinced 
that  the  state  of  things  is  much  otherwise  than  he  represents  j  that 
more  persons  are  brought  acquainted  with  the  glad  tidings  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  more  minds  penetrated  with  the  concerns  of  eternity,  than  at 
any  period  since  the  Reformation. 

Thus  far  we  dispute  the  justice  of  this  author's  statement,  and  are 
disposed  to  question  the  truth  of  the  inference  he  has  drawn  from 
some  insulated  facts.  But  this  is  not  the  only  fault  we  have  to  find 
with  this  part  of  his  work.  He  has  not  only,  in  our  opinion,  been  be- 
trayed into  erroneous  conclusions,  but  has  utterly  failed  in  catching  the 
distinguishing  features  in  the  aspect  of  the  times ;  so  that  his  picture 
bears  no  sort  of  resemblance  to  the  original.  He  has  painted  nothing  ; 
he  has  only  given  an  account  of  a  particular  distortion  or  two ;  so 
that  a  foreigner  would  no  more  be  able,  by  reading  his  work,  to  form 
an  idea  of  the  state  of  religion  in  England,  than  of  a  countenance  he 
had  never  seen  by  being  told  its  chin  was  too  long,  or  its  nostrils  were  too 
wide.  It  must  be  evident  to  every  one  that  the  most  striking  charac- 
teristic of  the  present  times  is  the  violent,  the  outrageous  opposition 
that  is  made  to  religion  by  mulcitudes,  and  the  general  disposition  in 
the  members  of  the  community  to  take  a  decided  part.  To  this  cir- 
cumstance the  writer  has  never  adverted.  It  is  impossible  to  suppose 
it  could  escape  his  attention :  we  must  therefore  impute  his  silence  to 
the  well-weighed  dictates  of  prudence,  which  admonished  him  of  the 
possibility  of  betraying  himself  into  inconveniences  by  such  a  discus- 
sion :  nor  need  we  be  surprised,  notwithstanding  his  boasted  magna- 
nimity, at  his  yielding  to  these  suggestions  ;  since  his  magnanimity  is 
of  that  sort  which  makes  a  man  very  ready  to  insult  his  brethren,  but 
very  careful  not  to  disgust  his  superiors.     As  we  are  happily  exempt 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  271 

from  these  scruples,  we  shall  endeavour,  in  as  few  words  as  possible, 
to  put  the  reader  in  possession  of  our  ideas  on  this  subject. 

The  leading  truths  of  revelation  were  all  along  retained  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  but  buried  under  such  a  mass  of  absurd  opinions  and  super- 
stitious observances,  that  they  drew  but  little  attention,  and  exerted  a 
very  inconsiderable  influence  in  the  practical  application  of  the  system. 
At  the  Reformation,  they  were  effectually  extricated  and  disengaged 
from  errors  with  which  they  had  been  mingled,  were  presented  in  a  blaze 
of  light,  and  formed  the  basis  of  our  national  creed.  As  it  was  by 
pushing  them  to  their  legitimate  consequences  that  the  Reformers  were 
enabled  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  popery,  they  were  for  a  while  re- 
tained in  their  purit)^  and  every  deviation  from  them  denounced  as 
menacing  a  revolt  to  the  enemy.  The  Articles  of  the  church  were  a 
real  transcript  of  the  principles  the  Reformers  were  most  solicitous  to 
inculcate  ;  and  being  supported  by  the  mighty  impulse  which  produced 
the  Reformation,  while  that  remained  fresh  and  unbroken  they  consti- 
tuted the  real  faith  of  the  people.  Afterward  they  underwent  an 
eclipse  in  the  Protestant  Church  of  England,  as  they  had  done  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  though  from  causes  somewhat  different.  The  low 
arminianism  and  intolerant  bigotry  of  Laud  paved  the  way  for  a  change, 
which  was  not  a  little  aided  and  advanced  by  the  unbounded  licen- 
tiousness and  profligacy  which  overspread  the  kingdom  after  the  Res- 
toration :  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  is  an  intimate  connexion 
between  the  perception  and  relish  of  truth  and  a  right  disposition  of 
mind  ;  that  they  have  a  reciprocal  influence  on  each  other  ;  and  that  the 
mystery  of  faith  can  only  be  placed  with  safety  in  a  pure  conscience. 
When  lewdness,  profaneness,  and  indecency  reigned  without  control, 
and  were  practised  without  a  blush,  nothing,  we  may  be  certain,  could 
be  more  repugnant  to  the  prevailing  taste  than  the  unadulterated  word 
of  God.  There  arose  also,  at  this  time,  a  set  of  divines  who,  partly 
in  compliance  with  the  popular  humour,  partly  to  keep  at  a  distance 
from  the  puritans,  and  partly  to  gain  the  infidels  who  then  began  to 
make  their  appearance,  introduced  a  new  sort  of  preaching,  in  which 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  as  they  are  usually  styled,  were  sup- 
planted by  copious  and  elaborate  disquisitions  on  points  of  morality. 
Their  fame  and  ability  imbpldened  their  successors  to  improve  upon 
their  pattern,  by  consigning  the  Articles  of  the  church  to  a  still  more 
perfect  oblivion,  by  losing  sight  still  more  entirely  of  the  peculiarities 
of  the  gospel,  guarding  more  anxiously  against  every  sentiment  or 
expression  that  could  agitate  or  alarm,  and  by  shortening  the  length, 
and  adding  as  much  as  possible  to  the  dryness,  of  their  moral  lucubra- 
tions. From  that  time,  the  idea  commonly  entertained  in  England  of 
a  perfect  sermon  was  that  of  a  discourse  upon  some  moral  topic,  clear, 
correct,  and  argumentative,  in  the  delivery  of  which  the  preacher  must 
be  free  from  all  suspicion  of  being  moved  himself,  or  of  intending  to 
produce  emotions  in  his  hearers ;  in  a  word,  as  remote  as  possible 
from  such  a  method  of  reasoning  on  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  as  should  make  a  Felix  tremble.  This  idea  was  veiy  suc- 
cessfully realized,  this  singular  model  of  pulpit  eloqoence  carried  to 


272  REVIEW  OF 

the  utmost  perfection ;  so  that,  while  the  bar,  the  parHament,  and  the 
theatre  frequently  agitated  and  inflamed  their  respective  auditories, 
the  church  was  the  only  place  where  the  most  feverish  sensibility  was 
sure  of  being  laid  to  rest.  This  inimitable  apathy  in  the  mode  of  im- 
parting religious  instruction,  combined  with  the  utter  neglect  of  what- 
ever is  most  touching  or  alarming  in  the  discoveries  of  the  gospel, 
produced  their  natural  effect  of  extinguishing  devotion  in  the  estab- 
lished church,  and  of  leaving  it  to  be  possessed  by  the  dissenters ;  of 
whom  it  was  considered  as  the  distinguishing  badge,  and  from  that 
circumstance  derived  an  additional  degree  of  unpopularity.  From 
these  causes  the  people  gradually  became  utterly  alienated  from  the 
Articles  of -the  church,  eternal  concerns  dropped  out  of  the  mind,  and 
what  remained  of  religion  was  confined  to  an  attention  to  a  few  forms 
and  ceremonies.  If  any  exception  can  be  made  to  the  justice  of  these 
observations,  it  respects  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  the  atone- 
ment, which  Avere  often  defended  with  ability,  though  in  a  dry  and 
scholastic  manner,  and  the  discussion  of  which  served  to  mark  the 
return  of  the  principal  festivals  of  the  church ;  while  other  points  not 
less  important, — such  as  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  the  necessity 
of  the  new  birth,  and  justification  by  faith, — were  either  abandoned  to 
oblivion,  or  held  up  to  ridicule  and  contempt.  The  consequence  was, 
that  the  creed  established  by  law  had  no  sort  of  influence  in  forming 
the  sentiments  of  the  people ;  the  pulpit  completely  vanquished  the 
desk  ;  piety  and  puritanism  were  confounded  in  one  common  reproach  ; 
an  almost  pagan  darkness  in  the  concerns  of  salvation  prevailed  ;  and 
the  English  became  the  most  irreligious  people  upon  earth. 

Such  was  the  situation  of  things  when  Whhfield  and  Wesley  made 
their  appearance ;  who,  whatever  feelings  the  severest  criticism  can 
discover  in  their  character,  will  be  hailed  by  posterity  as  the  second 
reformers  of  England.  Nothing  was  farther  from  the  views  of  these 
excellent  men  than  to  innovate  in  the  established  religion  of  their 
country ;  their  sole  aim  was  to  recall  the  people  to  the  good  old  way, 
and  to  imprint  the  doctrine  of  the  Articles  and  Homilies  on  the  spirits 
of  men.  But  this  doctrine  had  been  confined  so  long  to  a  dead  letter, 
and  so  completely  obliterated  from  the  mind  by  contrary  instruction, 
that  the  attempt  to  revive  it  met  with  all  the  opposition  which  innova- 
tion is  sure  to  encounter,  in  addition  to  what  naturally  results  from  the 
nature  of  the  doctrine  itself,  which  has  to  contend  with  the  whole  force 
of  human  corruption.  The  revival  of  the  old  appeared  like  the  intro- 
duction of  a  new  religion ;  and  the  hostility  it  excited  was  less  san- 
guinary, but  scarcely  less  virulent,  than  that  which  signalized  the  first 
publication  of  Christianity.  The  gospel  of  Christ,  or  that  system  of 
truth  which  was  laid  as  the  foundation  of  the  Reformation,  has  since 
made  rapid  advances ;  and  in  every  step  of  its  progress  has  sustained 
the  most  furious  assault.  Great  Britain  exhibits  the  singular  spectacle 
of  two  parties  contending,  not  whether  Christianity  shall  be  received 
or  rejected,  but  whether  it  shall  be  allowed  to  retain  any  thing  spiritual : 
not  whether  the  Articles  and  Homilies  shall  be  repealed,  but  whether 
they  shall  be  laid  as  the  basis  of  public  instruction.     Infidelity  being 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  273 

too  much  discredited  by  the  atrocities  in  France  to  hope  for  pubHc 
countenance,  the  enemies  of  rehgion,  instead  of  attacking  the  outworks 
of  Christianity,  are  obhged  to  content  themselves  with  vilifying  and 
misrepresenting  its  distinguishing  doctrines.  They  are  willing  to  re- 
tain the  Christian  religion,  providing  it  continue  inefficient ;  and  are 
wont  to  boast  of  their  attachment  to  the  established  church,  when  it  is 
manifest  there  is  little  in  it  they  admire,  except  its  splendour  and  its 
emoluments.  The  clerical  order,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  first  set  the 
example ;  and,  since  evangelical  principles  have  been  more  widely 
diffused,  have  generally  appeared  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  opposition. 
This  is  nothing  more  than  might  be  naturally  looked  for.  With  all  the 
respect  we  feel  for  the  clergy  on  account  of  their  learning  and  talents, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  know  that  many  of  them  are  mere  men  of  the 
world,  who  have  consequently  the  same  objections  to  the  gospel  as 
others,  together  with  some  peculiar  to  themselves.  As  the  very  at- 
tempt of  reviving  doctrines  which  have  been  obliterated  through  their 
neglect,  implies  a  tacit  censure  of  their  measures,  so,  wherever  that 
attempt  succeeds,  it  diminishes  the  weight  of  their  ecclesiastical  char- 
acter. Deserted  by  the  people,  and  eclipsed  in  the  public  esteem 
by  many  much  their  inferiors  in  literary  attainments,  they  feel  indig- 
nant :  and  if,  as  we  will  suppose,  they  sometimes  suspect  their  being 
neglected  has  arisen  from  their  inattention  to  important  truths  and  in- 
dispensable duties,  this  increases  their  uneasiness,  which,  if  it  fails  to 
reform,  will  inevitably  exasperate  them  still  more  against  those  who 
are  the  innocent  occasions  of  it.  It  is  but  fair  to  acknowledge,  that 
in  conducting  the  controversy,  they  have  generally  kept  within  decent 
bounds,  have  often  reasoned  where  others  have  railed,  and  have  usually 
abstained  from  topics  hackneyed  by  infidels  and  scoffers.  But  they 
cannot  be  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  having,  by  a  formal  opposition  to 
the  gospel,  inflamed  the  irreligious  prejudices  of  the  age,  obstructed 
the  work  they  were  appointed  to  promote,  and  imboldened  others,  who 
had  none  of  their  scruples  or  restraints,  to  outrage  piety  itself.  The 
dragon  has  cast  from  his  mouth  such  a  flood  of  heresy  and  mischief, 
that  Egypt,  in  the  worst  of  her  plagues,  was  not  covered  with  more 
loathsome  abominations.  Creatures  which  we  did  not  suspect  to  have 
existed  have  come  forth  from  their  retreats,  some  soaring  into  the 
regions  of  impiety  on  vigorous  pinions,  others  crawling  on  the  earth 
with  a  slow  and  sluggish  motion,  only  to  be  tracked  through  the  filthy 
slime  of  their  impurities.  We  have  seen  writers  of  every  order,  from 
the  Polyphemuses  of  the  north  to  the  contemptible  dwarfs  of  the  Crit- 
ical Review  ;  men  of  every  party,  infidels,  churchmen,  and  dissenters, 
— a  motley  crew,  who  have  not  one  thing  in  common,  except  their  an- 
tipathy to  religion, — ^join  hands  and  heart  on  this  occasion  :  a  deadly 
taint  of  impiety  has  blended  them  in  one  mass ;  as  things  the  most 
discordant,  while  they  are  living  substances,  will  do  perfectly  well  to 
putrefy  together. 

We  are  not  at  all  alarmed  at  this  extensive  combination ;  we  doubt 
not  of  its  producing  the  most  happy  effects.  It  has  arisen  from  the 
alarm  the  great  enemy  has  felt  at  the  extension  of  the  gospel ;  and 

Vol.  II.— S 


274  '  REVIEW  OF 

by  drawing  the  attention  of  the  world  more  powerfully  to  it,  will 
ultimately  aid  the  cause  it  is  intended  to  subvert.  The  public  will  not 
long  be  at  a  loss  to  determine  where  the  truth  lies,  when  they  see  in 
one  party  a  visible  fear  of  God,  a  constant  appeal  to  his  oracles,  a 
solicitude  to  promote  the  salvation  of  mankind  ;  in  the  other,  an  indecent 
levity,  an  unbridled  insolence,  an  unblushing  falsehood,  a  hard  unfeeling 
pride,  a  readiness  to  adopt  any  principles  and  assume  any  mask  that 
will  answer  their  purpose,  together  whh  a  manifest  aim  to  render  the 
Scriptures  of  no  authority  and  religion  of  no  effect. 
■  Havinc  so  often  alluded  to  the  "  evangelical  clergy,"  we  shall  close 
this  division  of  our  remarks  with  exliibiting  a  slight  outline  of  the 
doctrine  by  which  the  clergy  of  this  class  are  distinguished.  The 
term  evangelical  was  first  given  them  simply  on  account  of  their 
preaching  the  gospel,  or,  in  other  words,  their  exhibiting  with  clearness 
and  precision  the  peculiar  truths  of  Christianity.  In  every  system 
there  are  some  principles  which  serve  to  identify  it,  and  in  which  its 
distinguishing  essence  consists.  In  the  system  of  Christianity,  the 
rules  of  moral  duty  are  not  entitled  to  be  considered  in  this  light, 
partly  because  they  are  not  peculiar  to  it,  and  partly  because  they  are 
retained  by  professed  infidels,  who  avow  without  scruple  their  admi- 
ration of  tiie  morality  of  the  gospel.  We  must  look  then  elsewhere, 
for  the  distinguishing  character  of  Christianity.  It  must  be  sought 
for  in  its  doctrines,  and  (as  its  professed  design  is  to  conduct  men  to 
eternal  happiness)  in  those  doctrines  which  relate  to  the  way  of  sal- 
vation, or  the  method  of  a  sinner's  reconciliation  with  God.  There 
are  some,  we  are  aware,  who  would  reduce  the  whole  faith  of  a  Chris- 
tian to  a  belief  of  the  messiahship  of  Christ,  without  reflecting,  that 
until  we  have  fixed  some  specific  ideas  to  the  term  Messiah,  the 
proposition  which  affirms  him  to  be  such  contains  no  information. 
The  most  discordant  apprehensions  are  entertained  by  persons  who 
equally  profess  that  belief;  some  affirming  him  to  be  a  mere  man, 
others  a  being  of  the  angelic  order,  and  a  third  party  essentially  par- 
taker of  the  divine  nature.  The  first  of  these  look  upon  his  sufferings 
as  merely  exemplary ;  the  last,  as  propitiatory  and  vicarious.  It  must 
be  evident,  then,  from  these  views  beuig  at  the  utmost  distance  from 
each  other,  that  the  proposition  that  Christ  is  the  Messiah  conveys 
little  information,  while  the  import  of  its  principal  term  is  left  vague 
and  undetermined.  The  Socinian  and  Trinitarian,  notwithstanding 
their  verbal  agreement,  having  a  diflerent  object  of  worship,  and  a 
different  ground  of  confidence,  must  be  allowed  to  be  of  different 
religions.  It  requires  but  a  very  cursory  perusal  of  the  Articles  of  the 
established  church  to  determine  to  which  of  these  systems  they  lend 
their  support ;  or  to  perceive  that  the  deity  of  Christ,  the  doctrine  of 
atonement  for  sin,  the  guilt  and  apostacy  of  man,  and  the  necessity  of 
the  agency  of  the  Spirit  to  restore  the  divine  image,  are  asserted  by 
them  in  terms  the  most  clear  and  unequivocal.  This  question  stands 
quite  independent  of  the  Calvinistic  controversy.  Are  the  clergy,  styled 
evangelical,  to  be  blamed  for  preaching  these  doctrines  ?  Before  this 
can  be  allowed,  the  Articles  must  be  cancelled  by  the  same  authority 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  275 

by  wliidi  they  were  established ;  or  it  must  be  shown  how  it  consists 
witli  integrity  to  gain  an  introduction  to  the  church,  by  signifying  an 
unfeigned  assent  and  consent  to  certain  articles  of  religion,  with  the 
intention  of  immediately  banishing  them  from  notice.  The  clamour 
against  the  clergy  in  question  cannot,  without  an  utter  contempt  of 
decency,  be  excited  by  the  mere  fact  of  their  being  known  to  hold  and 
inculcate  these  doctrines ;  but  by  the  manner  of  their  teaching  them, 
or  the  exclusive  attention  they  are  supposed  to  pay  them,  to  the  neglect 
of  other  parts  of  the  system.  The  measure  of  zeal  they  display  for 
them,  they  conceive  to  be  justified,  as  well  by  a  view  of  the  actual 
state  of  human  nature,  as  by  the  express  declaration  of  the  inspired 
oracles.  Conceiving,  with  the  compilers  of  the  Articles,  that  the  state 
of  man  is  that  of  a  fallen  and  apostate  creature,  they  justly  conclude 
that  a  mere  code  of  morals  is  inadequate  to  his  relief;  that,  having  lost 
the  favour  of  God  by  his  transgression,  he  requires,  not  merely  to  be 
instructed  in  the  rules  of  duty,  but  in  the  method  of  regaining  the  happi- 
ness he  has  forfeited  ;  that  the  pardon  of  sin,  or  some  compensation  to 
divine  justice  for  the  injury  he  has  done  to  the  majesty  of  the  supreme 
Lawgiver,  are  the  objects  which  ought  in  the  first  place  to  occupy  his 
attention.  An  acquaintance  with  the  rules  of  duty  may  be  sufficient 
to  teach  an  innocent  creature  how  to  secure  the  felicity  he  possesses, 
but  can  afford  no  relief  to  a  guilty  conscience,  nor  instruct  the  sinner 
how  to  recover  the  happiness  he  has  lost.  Let  it  be  remembered,  that 
Christianity  is  essentially  a  restorative  dispensation ;  it  bears  a  con- 
tinual respect  to  a  state  from  which  man  is  fallen,  and  is  a  provision 
for  rej)airing  that  ruin  which  the  introduction  of  moral  evil  has  brought 
upon  him.  Exposed  to  the  displeasure  of  God  and  the  curse  of  his 
law,  he  stands  in  need  of  a  Redeemer  ;  disordered  in  his  powers,  and 
criminally  averse  to  his  duty,  he  equally  needs  a  Sanctifier.  As 
adapted  to  such  a  situation,  much  of  the  New  Testament  is  employed 
in  displaying  the  character  and  unfolding  the  offices  of  both,  with  a 
view  of  engaging  him  to  embrace  that  scheme  of  mercy  which  the 
Divine  benignity  has  thought  fit  to  exhibit  in  the  gospel.  The  intention 
of  St.  John  in  composing  the  evangelical  history  coincides  with  the 
entire  purpose  and  scope  of  revelation :  "  These  things  are  written," 
said  he,  "that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  and  that, 
believing,  ye  might  have  life  through  his  name."  Whoever  considers, 
that  upon  every  hypothesis  except  tlie  socinian,  Christianity  is  a  pro- 
vision of  mercy  for  an  apostate  and  sinful  world,  through  a  Divine 
Mediator,  will  acknowledge  that  something  more  is  included  in  the 
idea  of  preaching  the  gospel  than  the  inculcation  of  moral  duties ; 
and  that  he  who  confines  his  attention  to  these  exchanges  the  character 
of  a  Christian  pastor  for  that  of  a  fashionable  declaimer,  or  a  philo- 
sophical moralist.  If  we  turn  our  eyes  to  the  ministry  of  the  apostles, 
we  perceive  it  to  have  consisted  in  "  testifying  repentance  toward  God, 
and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :"  repentance,  which  is  natural 
religion  modified  by  the  circumstances  of  a  fallen  creature,  including 
a  return  to  the  path  of  duty  ;  and  faith,  which  is  a  practical  compliance 
with  the  Christian  dispensation,  by  receiving  the  Saviour  as  the  way, 

S2 


276  REVIEW  OF 

the  truth,  and  the  life.  Faith  and  repentance  being  the  primary  duties 
enjoined  under  the  gospel,  and  the  production  of  these  the  professed 
end  of  the  inspired  writers,  we  need  not  wonder  that  those  who  are 
ambitious  to  tread  in  their  steps  insist  much,  in  the  course  of  their 
ministry,  on  the  topics  which  supply  the  principal  motives  to  these 
duties  ; — the  evil  of  sin,  the  extent  of  human  corruption,  together  with 
the  dignity,  power,  and  grace  of  the  Redeemer.  Remembering  that 
the  object  of  repentance  is  God,  they  do  not,  in  treating  of  sin,  satisfy 
themselves  with  displaying  its  mischievous  effects  in  society  :  they 
expatiate  on  its  contrariety  to  the  Divine  nature ;  they  speak  of  it 
chiefly  as  an  affront  offered  to  the  authority  of  the  Supreme  Ruler ; 
and  represent  no  repentance  as  genuine  which  springs  not  from  godly 
sorrow,  or  a  concern  for  having  displeased  God.  In  this  part  of  their 
office  they  make  use  of  the  moral  law,  which  requires  the  devotion 
of  the  whole  heart  and  unfailing  obedience,  as  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
to  pierce  the  conscience,  and  to  convince  men  that  "  by  the  deeds  of  it 
no  flesh  living  can  be  justified,  but  that  every  mouth  must  be  stopped, 
and  the  whole  world  become  guilty  before  God."  The  uniform  course 
of  experience  serves  to  convince  them,  that  till  a  deep  impression  of 
this  truth  be  made  on  the  heart,  the  character  of  the  Saviour,  and  the 
promise  of  pardon  through  his  blood,  will  produce  no  gratitude,  and 
excite  no  interest.  In  inculcating  faith  in  Christ,  they  cannot  satisfy 
themselves  with  merely  exhibiting  the  evidences  of  Christianity :  a 
mere  assent  to  which,  upon  historical  grounds,  undeniably  fails,  in 
innumerable  instances,  of  producing  those  effects  which  are  uniformly 
ascribed  to  that  principle  in  the  New  Testament ;  neither  overcoming 
the  world,  nor  purifying  the  heart,  nor  inducing  newness  of  life.  They 
are  of  opinion  that  the  external  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion  are 
chiefly  of  importance  on  account  of  their  tendency  to  fix  the  attention 
on  Christ,  the  principal  object  exhibited  in  that  dispensation ;  and  the 
faith  on  which  the  Scriptures  lay  so  much  stress,  and  connect  with 
such  ineffable  benefits,  they  conceive  essentially  to  involve  a  personal 
reliance  on  Christ  for  salvation,  accompanied  with  a  cordial  submission 
to  his  authority.  Attempting  to  produce  this  Scriptural  faith,  in  a 
dependence  upon  the  Divine  blessing  (without  which  the  best  means 
will  be  unsuccessful),  they  dwell  much  on  the  dignity  of  his  character 
as  the  Son  of  God,  the  admirable  constitution  of  his  person  as 
"Immanuel,  God  with  us,"  the  efficacy  of  his  atonement,  and  the 
gracious  tenor  of  his  invitations,  together  with  the  agency  of  that 
Spirit  which  is  intrusted  to  him  as  the  Mediator,  to  be  imparted  to  the 
members  of  his  mystical  body.  In  their  view,  to  preach  the  gospel  is 
to  preach  Christ ;  they  perceive  the  New  Testament  to  be  full  of  him  : 
and  while  they  imbibe  that  spirit  with  which  it  is  replete,  they  feel  a 
sacred  ambition  to  diffuse  "  the  savour  of  his  name  in  every  place." 

Let  it  not  be  inferred  from  hence,  that  they  are  inattentive  to  the 
interests  of  practical  religion,  or  that  their  ministry  is  merely  occupied 
in  explaining  and  enforcing  a  doctrinal  system.  None  lay  more  stress 
on  the  duties  of  a  holy  life,  or  urge  with  more  constancy  the  necessity 
of  their  hearers  showmg  their  faith  by  their  works ;  and  they  are 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  277 

incessantly  affirming,  with  St.  James,  that  the  former  without  the  latter 
is  dead,  being  alone.  Though,  in  common  with  the  inspired  writers, 
they  ascribe  their  transition  from  a  state  of  death  to  a  state  of  justifi- 
cation solely  to  faith  in  Christ  previous  to  good  works  actually  performed, 
yet  they  equally  insist  upon  a  performance  of  those  works  as  the 
evidence  of  justifying  faith  ;  and,  supposing  life  to  be  spared,  as  the 
indispensable  condition  of  final  happiness.  The  law,  not  altered  in 
its  requirements  (for  what  was  once  duty  they  conceive  to  be  duty 
still),  but  attempered  in  its  sanctions  to  the  circumstances  of  a  fallen 
creature,  they  exhibit  as  the  perpetual  standard  of  rectitude,  as  the 
sceptre  of  majesty  by  which  the  Saviour  rules  his  disciples.  They 
conceive  it  to  demand  the  same  things,  though  not  with  the  same 
rigour,  under  the  gospel  dispensation  as  before.  The  matter  of  duly 
they  look  upon  as  unalterable,  and  the  only  difference  to  be  this  ;  that 
whereas  under  the  covenant  of  works  the  condhion  of  life  was  sinless 
obedience,  under  the  new  covenant  an  obedience  sincere  and  aflectionate, 
though  imperfect,  is  accepted  for  the  sake  of  the  Redeemer.  At  the 
same  time  they  do  not  cease  to  maintain,  that  the  faith  which  they 
hold  to  be  justifying  comprehends  in  it  the  seminal  principle  of  every 
virtue  ;  that  if  genuine  it  will  not  fail  to  be  fruitful ;  and  that  a  Chris- 
tian has  it  in  his  power  to  show  his  faith  "  by  his  works,^''  and  by  no 
other  means.  Under  a  full  conviction  of  the  fallen  state  of  man, 
together  with  his  moral  incapacity  to  do  what  is  pleasing  to  God,  they 
copiously  insist  on  the  agency  of  the  Spirit,  and  affectionately  urge 
their  hearers  to  implore  his  gracious  assistance.  From  no  class  of 
men  will  you  hear  more  solemn  warnings  against  sin,  more  earnest 
calls  to  repentance,  or  more  full  and  distinct  delineations  of  the  duties 
resulting  from  every  relation  in  life,  accompanied  with  a  peculiar 
advantage  of  drawing  from  the  mysteries  of  the  gospel  the  strongest 
motives  to  strengthen  the  abhorrence  of  the  one,  and  enforce  the 
practice  of  the  other.  In  their  hands,  morality  loses  nothing  but  the 
pagan  air  with  which  it  is  too  often  invested.  The  morality  which 
they  enjoin  is  of  heavenly  origin,  the  pure  emanation  of  truth  and 
love,  sprinkled  with  atoning  blood,  and  baptized  into  an  element  of 
Christian  sanctity.  That  they  are  not  indifferent  to  the  interests  of 
virtue  is  sufficiently  apparent,  from  the  warm  approbation  they  uni- 
formly express  of  the  excellent  work  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  which  is 
not  more  conspicuous  for  the  orthodoxy  of  its  tenets  than  for  the  purity 
and  energy  of  its  moral  instruction.  If  we  look  at  the  effects  produced 
from  the  ministry  of  these  men,  they  are  such  as  might  be  expected 
to  result  from  a  faithful  exhibition  of  the  truth  of  God.  Wherever 
they  labour,  careless  sinners  are  awakened,  profligate  transgressors 
are  reclaimed,  the  mere  form  of  religion  is  succeeded  by  the  power, 
and  fruits  of  genuine  piety  appear  in  the  holy  and  exemplary  lives 
of  their  adherents.  A  visible  reformation  in  society  at  large,  and  in 
many  instances  unequivocal  proofs  of  solid  conversion,  attest  the 
purity  of  their  doctrines  and  the  utility  of  their  labours  ;  effects  which 
we  challenge  their  enemies  to  produce  where  a  different  sort  of  teaching 
prevails. 


278  REVIEW  OF 

The  controversy  between  them  and  their  opponents,  to  say  the 
truth,  turns  on  a  point  of  the  greatest  magnitude :  the  question  at 
issue  respects  the  choice  of  a  supreme  end,  and  whether  we  will  take 
"  the  Lord  to  be  our  God."  Their  opponents  are  for  confining  religion 
to  an  acknowledgment  of  the  being  of  a  God  and  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  revelation,  accompanied  with  some  external  rites  of  devotion, 
while  the  world  is  allowed  the  exclusive  dominion  of  the  heart ;  they 
are  for  carrying  into  etfeet  the  apostolic  mission  by  summoning  men 
to  repentance,  and  engaging  them  to  an  entire  surrender  of  themselves 
to  the  service  of  God,  through  a  Mediator.  In  the  system  of  human 
life,  their  opponents  assign  to  devotion  a  very  narrow  and  limited 
agency:  they  contend  for  its  having  the  supreme  control.  The  former 
expect  nothing  from  religion  but  the  restraint  of  outward  enormities  by 
the  fear  of  future  punishment ;  in  the  views  of  the  latter  it  is  productive 
of  positive  excellence,  a  perennial  spring  of  peace,  purity,  and  joy. 
Instead  of  regarding  it  as  a  matter  of  occasional  reference,  they  con- 
sider it  as  a  principle  of  constant  operation.  While  their  opponents 
always  overlook,  and  frequently  deny,  the  specific  difference  between 
the  church  and  the  world,  in  their  views  the  Christian  is  a  pilgrim 
and  stranger  in  the  earth,  one  whose  heart  is  in  heaven,  and  who  is 
supremely  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  eternal  realities.  Their  fiercest 
opposers,  it  is  true,  give  to  Jesus  Christ  the  title  of  the  Saviour  of  the 
world :  but  it  requires  very  little  attention  to  perceive  that  their  hope 
of  future  happiness  is  placed  on  the  supposed  preponderancy  of  the 
virtues  over  the  vices,  and  the  claims  which  they  then  conceive  to  result 
on  the  justice  of  God ;  while  the  opposite  party  consider  themselves 
as  mere  pensioners  on  mercy ^  flee  for  refuge  to  the  Cross,  and  ascribe 
their  hopes  of  salvation  entirely  to  tlie  grace  of  the  Redeemer. 

For  our  parts,  supposing  the  being  and  perfections  of  God  once 
ascertained,  we  can  conceive  of  no  point  at  which  we  can  be  invited  to 
stop,  short  of  that  serious  piety  and  habitual  devotion  which  the  evan- 
gelical clergy  enforce.  To  live  without  religion,  to  be  devoid  of 
habitual  devotion,  is  natural  and  necessary  in  him  who  disbelieves  the 
existence  of  its  object;  but  upon  what  principles  he  can  justify  his 
conduct  who  professes  to  believe  in  a  Deity  without  aiming  to  please 
him  in  all  things,  without  placing  his  happiness  in  his  favour,  we  are 
utterly  at  a  loss  to  comprehend. 

We  cannot  dismiss  this  part  of  the  subject  without  remarking  the 
exemplary  moderation  of  the  clergy  of  this  class  on  those  intricate 
points  which  inihappily  divide  the  Christian  church  ;  the  questions,  we 
mean,  that  relate  to  predestination  and  free-will,  on  which,  equally 
remote  from  pelagian  heresy  and  antinomian  licentiousness,  they  freely 
tolerate  and  indulge  a  diversity  of  opinion,  embracing  Calvinists  and 
Arminians  with  little  distinction,  provided  the  Calvinism  of  the  former 
be  practical  and  moderate,  and  the  Arminianism  of  the  latter  evan- 
gelical and  devout.  The  greater  part  of  them  lean,  we  believe,  to  the 
doctrine  of  general  redemption,  and  love  to  represent  the  gospel  as 
bearing  a  frieudlj^  aspect  towards  the  eternal  happiness  of  all  to  whom 
it  is  addressed  ;  but  they  are  much  less  anxious  to  establish  a  polemical 
accuracy  than  to  "  win  souls  to  Christ." 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  279 

The  opposition  they  encounter  from  various  quarters  will  not  sur- 
prise those  who  reflect  that  they  are  not  of  the  world,  that  the  world 
loves  only  its  own,  and  naturally  feels  a  dislike  to  such  as  testify- 
that  its  works  are  evil.  The  Christianity  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
community  is  merely  nominal ;  and  it  necessarily  follows,  that  wherever 
the  truths  of  religion  are  faithfully  exhibited  and  practically  exemplified, 
they  will  be  sure  to  meet  with  the  same  friends  and  the  same  enemies 
as  at  their  first  promulgation ;  they  will  be  still  exposed  to  assault 
from  the  prejudices  of  unrenewed  minds,  they  will  be  upheld  by  the 
same  almighty  Power,  and  will  continue  to  insinuate  themselves  into 
the  hearts  of  the  simple  and  sincere  with  the  same  irresistible  force. 

We  hope  our  readers  will  excuse  the  length  to  which  we  have 
extended  our  delineation  of  the  principles  of  the  clergy  styled  "  evan- 
gelical,'' reflecting  how  grossly  they  have  been  misrepresented,  and 
that,  until  the  subject  is  placed  fairly  and  fully  in  view,  it  is  im- 
possible to  form  an  equitable  judgment  of  the  treatment  they  have 
met  with  from  the  writer  under  consideration. 

The  first  charge  he  adduces  against  the  evangelical  clergy  is  that 
of  enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm,  according  to  JMr.  Locke,  is  that  state 
of  mind  which  disposes  a  person  to  give  a  stronger  assent  to  a  religious 
proposition  than  the  evidence  will  justify.  According  to  the  more 
common  and  popular  notion,  it  implies  a  pretence  to  supernatural 
communications,  on  which  is  founded  a  belief  in  certain  doctrines,  and 
the  performance  of  certain  actions,  which  the  Scriptures  have  not 
authorized  or  revealed — a  dangerous  delusion,  as  it  tends  to  disannul 
the  standard  of  religion,  and,  by  the  extravagances  and  follies  it  pro- 
duces, to  bring  piety  into  disgrace.  We  hold  enthusiasm  in  as  much 
abhorrence  as  our  author  does ;  but  we  ask,  what  is  the  proportion 
of  the  evangelical  clergy  who  are  guilty  of  it  ?  and  for  every  individual 
among  them  to  whom  it  attaches,  we  will  engage  to  produce  ten  among 
their  opponents  who  are  deficient  in  the  essential  branches  of  morality. 
Yet  we  should  esteem  it  extreme  illiberality  in  a  writer  to  brand  the 
clergy  in  general  with  immorality.  There  may  be  some  few  among 
the  many  hundreds  whom  the  author  has  undertaken  to  describe  who 
are  real  enthusiasts ;  but  where  is  the  candour  or  justice  of  mindino- 
this  feature  in  the  delineation  of  the  body  ?  We  appeal  to  the  religious 
public,  whether  they  are  not,  on  the  contrary^  eminently  conspicuous 
for  their  close  adherence  "  to  the  law  and  to  the  testimony,"  and  for 
their  care  to  enjoin  nothing  on  their  hearers  without  direct  warrant 
from  the  Bible  ?  If  every  one  is  to  be  charged  with  enthusiasm  whose 
piety  is  of  a  more  fervid  complexion  than  the  accuser  is  disposed  to 
sympathize  with,  or  can  readily  account  for,  we  must  indeed  despair 
of  convincing  this  writer  of  the  futility  of  his  allegation.  They  have 
the  zeal  which,  to  him  who  makes  what  is  most  prevalent  in  the  church 
his  model,  must  look  like  innovation. 

He  frequently  insinuates  that  there  is  a  disposition  in  them  to  sym- 
bolize with  the  dissenters,  though  he  had  allowed,  at  the  very  outset 
of  his  work,  that  they  most  strictly  conform  to  the  prescribed  ritual, 
have  no  scruples  against  canonical  obedience,  and  are  most  firmly 


280  REVIEW  OF 

attached  to  the  ecclesiastical  constitution.  Speaking  of  the  established 
church,  he  says, 

"  They  (the  evangelical  clergy)  approve,  they  admire  the  church  in 
which  they  serve.  They  rejoice  in  being  ministers  of  such  a  church. 
Instead  of  being  indifferent  to  its  continuance,  their  devoutest  wish  is 
that  it  may  stand  firm  on  its  basis.  They  consider  it  as  the  greatest 
of  blessings  to  their  country.  They  observe,  with  no  little  anxiety, 
separatism  gaining  ground  upon  it.  And  this,  not  from  an  invidious 
principle,  but  because  hereby  an  alienation,  in  perpetuity,  is  produced 
in  many  minds,  from  a  constitution  which  they  consider  as  best  pro- 
viding for  the  universal  conveyance  and  permanent  publication  of 
Christian  truth.  Its  continuance  they  likewise  consider  as  the  surest 
pledge  of  religious  liberty  to  all  who  wish  for  that  blessing.  And  in 
this  view  they  pity  the  shortsightedness  of  those  religious  persons  who 
forward  any  measures  which  make  against  the  stability  of  the  national 
church.  They  view  them  as  men  undermining  the  strongest  bulwark 
of  their  own  security  and  comfort,  and  conceive  that  Protestant  sects, 
of  every  name,  however  they  might  prefer  their  own  modes  of 
religion,  would  devoutly  pray  for  the  support  and  prosperity  of  the 
Church  of  England  as  it  now  stands  :  '  Sua  si  bona  norint.^  In  short, 
the  ecclesiastical  establishment  of  this  country  is  in  their  views  what 
*  the  ark  of  God'  was  in  the  estimation  of  the  pious  Israelite ;  and 
'their  hearts  tremble'  more  for  that  than  for  any  thing  else,  the 
stability  of  whicti  may  seem  to  be  endangered  in  these  eventful  times. 
They  would  consider  its  fall  as  one  of  the  heaviest  judgments  that 
could  befall  the  nation." — Pp.  128,  129. 

Any  such  approach  to  the  dissenters  as  is  inconsistent  with  their 
professional  engagements  is  incompatible  with  the  truth  of  this  testi- 
mony.    But  let  us  go  on  to  notice  another  imputation. 

"  I  am  constantly,"  says  the  author,  "ready  to  admit  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  truth  in  what  is  often  alleged  by  their  opponents  ;  namely,  that 
under  their  preaching  there  has  arisen  an  unfavourable  opinion  of  the 
body  of  the  clergy.  To  excite  a  hatred  of  what  is  evil  is  undoubtedly 
one  purpose  of  Christian  instruction.  But  while  the  preacher  is 
attempting  this,  he  must  take  care  that  he  do  not  call  forth  the 
malignant  passions.  This  he  is  almost  sure  to  do  if  he  point  out  a 
certain  set  of  men  as  persons  to  whom  his  reprehensions  particularly 
apply.  The  hearers,  too  generally  apt  to  forget  themselves,  are  drawn 
still  further  from  the  consideration  of  their  own  faults,  when  they  can 
find  a  defined  class  of  men  on  whom  they  can  fasten  the  guilt  of  any 
alleged  error  ;  on  them  they  will  discharge  their  gall,  and  mistake  their 
rancour  for  righteousness.^' — Pp.  154,  155,  Second  Edition. 

Two  questions  arise  on  this  point :  first,  how  far  an  unfavourable 
opinion  of  the  body  of  the  clergy  is  just ;  and,  secondly,  what  sort  of 
influence  the  evangelical  party  have  had  in  producing  it.  "  The  clergy, 
as  a  body,"  the  author  complains,  "  are  considered  by  them  and  their 
adherents  as  men  who  do  not  preach  the  gospel."  If  we  understand 
him,  he  means  to  assert  that  the  clergy,  as  a  body,  do  preach  the  gos- 
pel ;  for  we  cannot  suspect  him  of  being  so  ridiculous  as  to  complain 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  281 

of  their  being  considered  in  their  just  and  true  light.  Here  we  have 
the  very  singular  spectacle  of  gospel  ministers  exclaiming  with  bitter- 
ness against  some  of  their  brethren  for  preaching  the  doctrines  of  the 
new  birth,  justification  by  faith,  the  internal  operations  of  the  Spirit, 
and  whatever  else  characterized  the  faith  of  the  Reformers,  which  we 
have  the  satisfaction  of  learning,  from  this  most  liberal  writer,  are  no 
parts  of  the  gospel.  Or,  if  he  demur  in  assenting  to  such  a  proposi- 
tion, it  is  incumbent  on  him  to  explain  what  are  the  doctrines  distinct 
from  those  we  have  mentioned,  the  inculcation  of  which  has  excited 
the  opposition  of  the  clergy.  We,  in  our  great  simplicity,  supposed 
that  the  ministers  styled  evangelical  had  been  opposed  for  insisting  on 
points  intimately  related  to  the  gospel ;  but  we  are  now  taught,  from 
high  authority,  that  the  controversy  is  entirely  of  another  kind,  and 
relates  to  subjects  with  respect  to  which  the  preachers  of  the  gospel 
may  indifferently  arrange  themselves  on  either  side.  We  are  under 
great  obligations  to  our  author  for  clearing  up  this  perplexing  affair, 
and  so  satisfactorily  showing  both  parties  they  were  fighting  in  the 
dark.  Poor  George  Whitfield  !  how  much  to  be  pitied,  who  exhausted 
liimself  with  incredible  labours,  and  endured  a  storm  of  persecution, 
in  communicating  religious  instruction  to  people  who  were  already 
furnished  with  more  than  ten  thousand  preachers  of  the  gospel !  To 
be  serious,  however,  on  a  subject  which,  if  there  be  one  in  the  world, 
demands  seriousness, — it  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  that  the  doctrines 
of  the  Reformation  are  no  longer  heard  in  the  greater  part  of  the  estab- 
lished pulpits,  and  that  there  has  been  a  general  departure  from  the 
truths  of  the  gospel,  which  are  exhibhed  in  the  ministry  of  a  small 
though  increasing  minority  of  the  clergy.  The  author  knows  this  to 
be  a  fact,  although  he  has  the  meanness  to  express  himself  in  a  manner 
that  would  imply  his  being  of  a  contrary  opinion.  We  wish  him 
all  the  consolation  he  can  derive  from  this  trait  of  godly  simplicity, 
as  well  as  from  his  reflection  on  the  effect  which  his  flattery  is  likely 
to  produce,  in  awakening  the  vigilance  and  improving  the  character 
of  his  newly-discovered  race  of  gospel  ministers.  With  respect  to 
the  degree  in  which  an  unfavourable  opinion  of  the  clergy  is  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  representations  of  the  evangelical  party,  we  have  to 
remark,  that  they  possess  too  much  attachment  to  their  order  to  delight 
in  depreciating  it ;  and  that  they  are  under  no  temptation  to  attempt  it 
with  a  view  to  secure  the  preference  of  their  hearers  ;  who,  supposing 
them  to  have  derived  benefit  from  their  labours,  will  be  sufficiently 
aware  of  the  difference  between  light  and  darkness,  between  famine 
and  plenty.  Were  they  to  insinuate,  with  this  author,  that  all  their 
clerical  brethren  are  actually  engaged  in  the  same  cause,  and  are  pro- 
moting the  same  object  with  themselves,  they  would  at  once  be 
charged  with  a  violation  of  truth,  and  be  considered  as  insulting  the 
common  sense  of  the  public. 

The  author  is  extremely  offended  at  Dr.  Haweis,  on  account  of  the 
following  passage  in  his  History  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  "  Different 
itinerant  societies  have  been  established  in  order  to  send  instruction  to 
the  poor,  in  the  villages  where  the  gospel  is  not  preached.     Probably 


282  REVIEW  OF 

nouless  than  five  hundred  places  of  divine  worship  have  been  opened 
within  the  last  three  years."  Dr.  Havveis,  in  making  this  representa- 
tion, undoubtedly  conceived  himself  to  be  stating  a  simple  fact,  without 
suspecting  any  lover  of  the  gospel  would  call  it  in  question.  The 
author's  conmient  upon  it  is  curious  enough.  "  It  would  be  scarcely 
credible,"  he  says,  "  were  not  the  time  and  place  marked  with  suffi- 
cient precision,  that  a  clergyman  beneficed  in  the  Church  of  England 
was  describing,  in  the  foregoing  passage,  something  which  had  lately 
been  taking  place  in  this  country  !"  It  is  surely  very  credible  that 
there  are  five  hundred  places  in  England  where  the  gospel  is  not 
preached  ;  the  incredible  part  of  the  business,  then,  consists  in  a  "  be- 
neficed clergyman"  daring  to  assert  it,  who,  according  to  the  author,  is 
a  sort  of  personage  who  is  bound  never  to  utter  a  truth  that  will  offend 
the  delicate  ears  of  the  clergy,  especially  on  so  trivial  an  occasion  as 
that  of  describing  the  state  of  religion  in  England.  What  a  magna- 
nimity of  spirit,  and  how  far  is  this  author  from  the  suspicion  of  being 
a  man-pleaser ! 

After  acknowledging  that  the  ministers  he  is  characterizing  have 
been  unjustly  charged  with  infringing  on  canonical  regularity,  he  adds, 

" Would  it  were  as  easy  to  defend  them  universally*  against  those 
who  accuse  them  of  vanity,  of  courting  popularity,  of  effrontery,  of 
coarseness,  of  the  want  of  that  affectionate  spirit  which  should  breathe 
through  all  the  ministrations  of  a  Christian  teacher,  of  their  commonly 
appearing  before  a  congregation  with  an  objurgatory  aspect,  as  if  their 
minds  were  always  brooding  over  some  matter  of  accusation  against 
their  charge,  instead  of  their  feeling  towards  them  as  a  father  does 
towards  his  children." — P.  157. 

The  reader  has  in  this  passage  a  tolerable  specimen  of  the  "  vanity" 
and  "  effrontery"  of  this  writer,  as  well  as  of  that  "  objurgatory  aspect" 
he  has  thought  fit  to  assume  towards  his  brethren,  not  without  strong 
suspicion  of  assuming  it  from  a  desire  to  "  court  popularity."  It  would 
be  a  mere  waste  of  words  to  attempt  to  reply  to  such  an  accusation, 
which  merits  attention  on  no  other  account  than  its  exhibiting  a  true 
picture  of  his  mind. 

"  As  for  the  matter,"  he  proceeds  to  observe,  "  of  which  the  sermons 
delivered  by  some  of  them  are  composed,  it  is  contemptible  in  the  ex- 
treme. Though  truths  of  great  importance  are  brought  forward,  yet, 
as  if  those  who  delivered  them  were  born  to  ruin  the  cause  in  whicli 
they  are  engaged,  they  are  presented  to  the  auditory  associated  with 
such  meanness,  imbecility,  or  absurdity,  as  to  afford  a  complete 
triumph  to  those  who  are  adverse  to  their  propagation.  We  are  dis- 
gusted by  the  violation  of  all  the  rules  which  the  common  sense  of 
mankind  teaches  them  to  expect  the  observance  of  on  the  occasion. 
It  is  true,  indeed,  thai  something  is  heard  about  Christ,  about  faith  and 
repentance,  about  sin  and  grace ;  but  in  vain  we  look  for  argument,  or 
persuasion,  or  suavity,  or  reverential  demeanour ;  qualities  which  ought 

*  The  word  universally,  marked  in  italics,  was  inserted  after  the  first  edition. 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  283 

never  to  be  absent,  where  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  judg- 
ment be  convinced,  and  the  affections  gained." — P.  158. 

Unfair  and  illiberal  in  the  extreme  as  this  representation  is,  it  con- 
tains an  important  concession, — that  the  lowest  preachers  among  them 
have  the  wisdom  to  make  a  right  selection  of  topics,  and  to  bring  for- 
ward truths  of  great  importance ;  a  circumstance  sufficient  of  itself 
to  give  them  an  infinite  superiority  over  the  "  apes  of  Epictetus."*  A 
great  diversity  of  talents  must  be  expected  to  be  found  among  them ; 
but  it  has  not  been  our  lot  to  hear  of  any  whose  labours  a  good  man 
would  think  it  right  to  treat  with  indiscriminate  contempt.  As  they 
are  called,  for  the  most  part,  to  address  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
of  society,  their  language  is  plain  and  simple;  speaking  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  their  address  is  solemn ;  and  as  becomes  "  the  ambassa- 
dors of  Christ,"  their  appeals  to  the  conscience  are  close  and  cogent. 
Few,  if  any,  among  them  aspire  to  the  praise  of  consummate  orators — 
a  character  which  we  despair  of  ever  seeing  associated  in  high  per- 
fection with  that  of  a  Christian  teacher.  The  minister  of  the  gospel 
is  called  to  declare  the  testimony  of  God,  which  is  always  weakened 
by  a  profuse  employment  of  the  ornaments  of  secular  eloquence. 
Those  exquisite  paintings  and  nice  touches  of  art  in  which  the  ser- 
mons of  the  French  preachers  excel  so  much,  excite  a  kind  of  attention, 
and  produce  a  species  of  pleasure,  not  in  perfect  accordance  with  de- 
votional feeling.  The  imagination  is  too  much  excited  and  employed, 
not  to  interfere  with  the  more  awful  functions  of  conscience  ;  the  hearer 
is  absorbed  in  admiration ;  and  the  exercise  which  ought  to  be  an  in- 
strument of  conviction,  becomes  a  feast  of  taste.  In  the  hand  of  a 
Massillon,  the  subject  of  death  itself  is  blended  with  so  many  asso- 
ciations of  the  most  delicate  kind,  and  calls  up  so  many  sentiments  of 
natural  tenderness,  as  to  become  a  source  of  theatrical  amusement, 
rather  than  of  religious  sensibility.  Without  being  insensible  to  the 
charms  of  eloquence,  it  is  our  decided  opinion  that  a  sermon  of  Mr. 
Gisborne's  is  more  calculated  to  "  convert  a  sinner  from  the  error  of 
his  way,"  than  one  of  Massillon's.  It  is  a  strong  objection  to  a  studied 
attempt  at  oratory  in  the  pulpit,  that  it  usually  induces  a  neglect  of  the 
peculiar  doctrines  of  Christian  verity,  where  the  preacher  feels  himself 
restrained,  and  is  under  the  necessity  of  explaining  texts,  of  obviating 
objections,  and  elucidating  difficulties,  which  limits  the  excursions  of 
imagination,  and  confines  it  within  narrow  bounds.  He  is  therefore 
eager  to  escape  from  these  fetters  ;  and,  instead  of  "  reasoning  out  of 
the  Scriptures"  expatiates  in  the  flowery  fields  of  declamation.  It 
would  be  strange,  however,  if  the  evangelical  clergy  did  not  excel 
their  contemporaries  in  the  art  of  preaching,  to  which  they  devote  so 
much  more  of  their  attention.  While  others  are  accustomed  to  describe 
it  under  the  very  appropriate  phrase  of  "  doing  duty,"  it  is  their  busi- 
ness and  their  delight.  They  engage  in  it  under  many  advantages. 
Possessed  of  the  same  education  with  their  brethren,  they  usually 
speak  to  crowded  auditories ;  the  truths  they  deliver  command  attention ; 

*  Horsley. 


284  REVIEW  OF 

and  they  are  accustomed  to  ascend  the  pulpit  under  an  awful  sense  of 
the  weight  and  importance  of  their  charge.  Under  such  circumstances, 
it  is  next  to  impossible  for  them  not  to  become  powerful  and  impres- 
sive. Were  it  not  indehcate  to  mention  names,  we  could  easily  con- 
firm our  observations  by  numerous  living  examples.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that  perhaps  no  denomination  of  Christians  ever  produced  so  many 
excellent  preachers ;  and  that  it  is  entirely  owing  to  them  that  the 
ordinance  of  preaching  has  not  fallen,  in  the  established  church,  into 
utter  contempt. 

With  respect  to  the  remarks  the  author  makes  on  the  "hypo- 
chondriacal cast  of  preaching  heard  among  them,"  of  their  "  holding 
tlieir  hearers  by  details  of  conflicts  and  experiences,"  and  of  their 
'■'■prosings  on  the  hidings  of  God's  face,"*  we  need  not  detain  our 
readers.  To  good  men  it  will  be  matter  of  serious  regret  to  find  a 
writer  from  whom  diff'erent  things  were  to  be  expected  treat  the  con- 
cerns of  the  spiritual  warfare  in  so  light  and  ludicrous  a  manner; 
while  the  irreligious  will  heartily  join  in  the  laugh.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that  he  is  performing  quarantine,  purging  himself  from  the 
suspicions  of  Methodism,  and  that  nothing  can  answer  this  purpose  so 
well  as  a  spice  of  profaneness. 

After  expressing  his  contempt  of  the  evangelical  clergy  as  preachers, 
he  proceeds  to  characterize  them  in  the  following  manner  as  writers : — 

"  Here,"  says  he,  "  I  can  with  great  truth  affirm,  that  many  included 
in  that  description  of  clergymen  now  under  consideration  are  sorely 
grieved  by  much  of  what  comes  out  as  the  produce  of  authorship  on 
their  side.  And  well  they  may  be ;  to  see,  as  is  frequently  the  case, 
the  blessed  truths  of  the  gospel  degraded,  by  being  associated  with 
newspaper  bombast,  with  impudence,  with  invective,  with  dotage,  with 
drivelling  cant,  with  buffoonery,  and  scurrility !  Who  can  read  these 
despicable  publications  without  thinking  contemptuously  of  all  who 
abet  them  ?  But  let  not  every  one  in  whom  an  occasional  coincidence 
of  opinion  may  be  recognised  be  included  in  this  number.  For  it  is 
a  certain  truth,  that  the  writings  of  avowed  infidels  are  not  more  offen- 
sive to  several  of  the  clergy  in  question  than  are  some  of  the  publi- 
cations here  alluded  to.  Let  them  not,  therefore,  be  judged  of  by 
that  which  they  condemn ;  by  productions  which  they  consider  as  an 
abuse  of  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  cause  which 
their  authors  profess  to  serve." — P.  179. 

Whoever  remembers  that  the  most  learned  interpreter  of  prophecj' 
now  living  ranks  with  the  evangelical  clergy,  whoever  recalls  to  his 
recollection  the  names  of  Scott,  Robinson,  Gisborne,  and  a  multitude 
of  others  of  the  same  description,  will  not  easily  be  induced  to  form  a 
contemptuous  opinion  of  their  literary  talents,  or  to  suspect  them  of 
being  a  whit  behind  the  rest  of  the  clergy  in  mental  cultivation  or  in- 
tellectual vigour.  In  a  subsequent  edition  the  author  has  explained 
his  meaning,  by  restricting  the  censure  to  all  who  have  ranged  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  the  clergy  under  consideration.     But  as  far  as 

*  In  the  second  edition,  the  author  has  changed  the  term  "prosinffs^  into  "  discmirsings." 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  286 

the  most  explicit  avowal  of  the  same  tenets  can  indicate  any  thing, 
have  not  each  of  the  respectable  persons  before  mentioned  ranged 
themselves  on  their  side  ?  Or  if  he  will  insist  upon  limiting  the  phrase 
to  such  as  have  defended  them  in  controversy,  what  will  he  say  of  Over- 
ton, whose  work,  for  a  luminous  statement  of  facts,  an  accurate  ar- 
rangement of  multifarious  articles,  and  a  close  deduction  of  proofs, 
would  do  honour  to  the  first  polemic  of  the  age  1  In  affecting  a  con- 
tempt of  this  most  able  writer,  he  has  contradicted  himself,  having,  in 
another  part  of  this  work,  borne  a  reluctant  testimony  to  his  talents. 
He  closes  his  animadversions  on  the  clergy  usually  styled  evangelical 
with  the  following  important  concessions  : — 

"  We  are  ready  to  own,  though  there  have  been  a  few  instances  to 
the  contrary,  that  the  moral  conduct  of  the  men  in  question  is  consis- 
tent with  their  calling ;  and  that,  though  the  faults  above  detailed  are 
found  among  them,  yet,  as  a  body,  they  are  more  than  free  from  immo- 
ralities."—P.  162. 

The  men  to  whom  their  accusers  ascribe  an  assemblage  of  virtues 
so  rare  and  so  important,  must  unquestionably  be  "  the  excellent  of  the 
earth,"  and  deserve  a  very  different  treatment  from  what  they  have 
received  at  his  hands. 

Before  we  put  a  final  period  to  this  article,  we  must  beg  the  reader's 
patience  to  a  few  remarks  on  the  general  tendency  of  the  work  under 
examination. 

For  the  freedom  of  censure  the  author  has  assumed  he  cannot  plead 
the  privilege  of  reproof.  He  has  violated  every  law  by  which  it  is 
regulated.  In  administering  reproof,  we  are  not  wont  to  call  in  a  third 
party,  least  of  all  the  party  to  whom  the  persons  reproved  are  directly 
opposed.  Besides,  if  reproof  is  intended  to  have  any  effect,  it  must  be 
accompanied  with  the  indications  of  a  friendly  mind ;  since  none  ever 
succeeded  in  reclaiming  the  person  he  did  not  appear  to  love.  The 
spirit  this  writer  displays  towards  the  objects  of  his  censure  is  deci- 
dedly hostile  ;  no  expressions  of  esteem,  no  attempt  to  conciliate  ;  all  is 
rudeness,  asperity,  and  contempt.  He  tells  us  in  his  preface,  "  It  is 
dithcult  to  find  an  apology  for  disrespectful  language  under  any  cir- 
cumstances :  if  it  can  be  at  ail  excused,  it  is  when  he  who  utters  lets 
us  know  from  whence  it  comes ;  but  he  who  dares  to  use  it,  and  yet 
dares  not  to  put  his  name  to  the  abuse,  gives  us  reason  to  conclude 
that  his  cowardice  is  equal  to  his  insolence." — (Pref.  p.  iv.)  In  vio- 
lation of  his  own  canon,  he  seems  to  have  assumed  a  disguise  for  the 
very  purpose  of  giving  an  unbridled  indulgence  to  the  insolence  he 
condemns. 

If  we  consider  him  in  the  light  of  a  public  censor,  he  will  appear 
to  have  equally  neglected  the  proprieties  of  that  character.  He  who 
undertakes  that  ofiice  ought,  in  all  reason,  to  direct  his  chief  attention 
to  vice  and  impiety ;  which,  as  the  common  foes  of  human  nature,  give 
every  one  the  privilege  of  attack.  Though  his  subject  naturally  led 
him  to  it,  we  find  little  or  nothing  of  the  kind.  In  his  eagerness  to 
expose  the  aberrations  of  goodness,  the  most  deadly  sins  and  the  most 
destructive  errors  are  scarcely  noticed.     la  surveying  the  state  of 


286  REVIEW  OF 

morals,  the  eccentricities  of  a  pious  zeal,  a  hairbreadth  deviation  from 
ecclesiastical  etiquette,  a  momentary  feeling  of  tenderness  towards  dis- 
senters, are  the  things  which  excite  his  indignation ;  while  the  secu- 
larity,  the  indolence,  the  ambition,  and  dissipation  too  prevalent  in  the 
church  almost  escape  his  observation.  AVe  do  not  mean  to  assert 
that  it  is  always  improper  to  animadvert  on  the  errors  and  mistakes  of 
good  men ;  we  are  convinced  of  the  contrary.  But  whenever  it  is 
attempted,  it  ought  to  be  accompanied  with  such  expressions  of  tender- 
ness and  esteem,  as  shall  mark  our  sense  of  their  superiority  to  per- 
sons of  an  opposite  description.  In  the  rnoral  delineations  with  which 
the  New  Testament  abounds,  when  the  imperfections  of  Christians 
are  faithfully  reprehended,  we  are  never  tempted  to  lose  sight  of  the 
infinite  disparity  between  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  gospel. 
Our  reverence  for  good  men  is  not  impaired  by  contemplating  their 
infirmities :  while  those  who  are  strangers  to  vital  religion,  with  what- 
ever amiable  qualities  they  may  be  invested,  appear  objects  of  pity. 
The  impression  made  by  the  present  performance  is  just  the  reverse. 
The  character  of  the  unquestionably  good  is  placed  in  so  invidious  a 
light  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  bad  qualities  of  their  opponents  so  art- 
fully disguised  and  extenuated  on  the  other,  that  the  reader  feels  him- 
self at  a  loss  which  to  prefer.  Its  obvious  tendency  is  to  obliterate 
every  mark  and  characteristic  by  which  genuine  religion  is  ascertained. 

The  writer  of  this  work  cannot  have  intended  the  reformation  of  the 
party  on  which  he  has  animadverted  ;  for,  independently  of  his  having 
by  the  rudeness  of  his  attack  forfeited  every  claim  to  their  esteem,  he 
has  so  conducted  it,  that  there  is  not  one  in  fifty  guilty  of  the  faults  he 
has  laid  to  their  charge.  Instead  of  being  induced  to  alter  their  con- 
duct, they  can  only  feel  for  him  those  sentiments  which  unfounded 
calumny  is  apt  to  inspire.  The  very  persons  to  whom  his  censures 
apply  will  be  more  likely  to  feel  their  resentment  rise  at  the  bitterness 
and  rancour  which  accompany  them,  than  to  profit  by  his  admonitions. 

As  we  are  fully  convinced  that  the  controversy  aghated  between  the 
evangelical  party  and  their  opponents  involves  the  essential  interests 
of  the  gospel,  and  whatever  renders  Christianity  worth  contending  for, 
we  cannot  but  look  with  jealousy  on  the  person  who  offers  himself  as 
an  umpire  ;  especially  when  we  perceive  a  leaning  towards  the  party 
which  we  consider  in  the  wrong.  This  partiality  may  be  traced 
almost  through  every  page  of  the  present  work.  Were  we  to  look 
only  to  speculative  points,  we  might  be  tempted  to  think  otherwise. 
It  is  not,  however,  in  the  cool,  argumentative  parts  of  a  work  that  the 
bias  of  an  author  is  so  much  to  be  perceived,  as  in  the  declamatory 
parts,  when  he  gives  a  freer  scope  to  his  feelings.  It  is  in  the  choice 
of  the  epithets  applied  to  the  respective  parties,  in  the  expression  of 
contemptuous  or  respectful  feeling,  in  the  solicitude  apparent  to  please 
the  one,  combined  with  his  carelessness  of  off'ending  the  other,  that 
he  betrays  the  state  of  his  heart.  Judged  by  this  criterion,  this  author 
must  be  pronounced  an  enemy  to  the  evangelical  party.  We  hope  this 
unnatural  alienation  from  the  servants  of  Christ  will  not  prove  conta- 
gious, or  it  vvill  soon  completely  overthrow  that  reformation  which  the 
established  church  has  experienced  within  the  last  fifty  years. 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  287 

AVhen  Samson  was  brought  into  the  house  of  Dagon  to  make  sport 
for  the  PhiHslines,  it  was  by  the  Phihstines  themselves :  had  it  been 
(lone  by  an  IsraeUte,  it  would  have  betrayed  a  blindness  much  more 
deplorable  than  that  of  Samson.  Great  as  were  the  irregularities  and 
disorders  which  delbrmed  the  church  at  Corinth,  and  severely  as  they 
were  reprehended,  it  is  easy  to  conceive,  but  impossible  to  express,  the 
indignation  Paul  would  have  felt,  had  a  Christian  held  up  those  disor- 
ders to  the  view  and  the  derision  of  the  heathen  world.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  conduct  of  Luther,  of  Carlostadt,  and  of  many  other 
reformers,  furnished  matter  of  merited  censure,  and  even  of  plausible 
invective  ;  but  he  who  had  employed  himself  in  emblazoning  and  mag- 
nifying their  iaults  would  have  been  deemed  a  foe  to  the  Reformation. 
Aware  that  it  will  be  replied  to  this,  the  cases  are  diilerent,  and  neither 
the  truth  of  Christianity  nor  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  are 
involved  in  the  issue  of  the  present  controversy;  we  answer  without 
hesitation,  that  the  controversy  now  on  foot  does  involve  nearly  all  that 
renders  it  important  for  Cliristianity  to  be  true,  and  most  precisely  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  to  which  the  papists  are  not  more  inimi- 
cal (in  some  points  they  are  less  so)  than  the  opponents  of  the  evan- 
gelical clergy.  It  is  the  old  enmity  to  the  gospel,  under  a  new  form  ; 
an  emnity  as  deadly  and  inveterate  as  that  which  animated  the  breast 
of  Porpliyry  or  of  Julian. 

The  impression  of  character  on  the  public  mind  is  closely  connected 
with  that  of  principles  ;  so  that,  in  the  mixed  questions  more  espe- 
cially which  regard  religion  and  morals,  it  is  vain  to  expect  men  will 
condescend  to  be  instructed  by  those  whom  they  are  taught  to  despise. 
Let  it  be  generally  supposed  that  the  patrons  of  orthodox  piety  are 
weak,  ignorant,  and  enthusiastic,  despicable  as  a  body,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  individuals ;  after  being  inured  to  such  representations 
from  their  enemies,  let  the  public  be  told  this  by  one  who  was  formerly 
their  friend  and  associate, — and  is  it  possible  to  conceive  a  circum- 
stance more  calculated  to  obstruct  the  efficacy  of  their  principles  ? 
Will  the  prejudices  of  an  irreligious  world  against  the  gospel  be  miti- 
gated by  being  inspired  with  contempt  for  its  abetters  ?  Will  it  be 
won  to  the  love  of  piety  by  being  schooled  in  the  scorn  and  derision 
of  its  most  serious  professors  ? 

We  can  readily  suppose,  that,  stung  with  the  reproaches  cast  upon 
his  party,  he  is  weary  of  bearing  the  Cross  :  if  this  be  the  case,  let 
him  at  once  renounce  his  principles,  and  not  attempt,  by  mean  conces- 
sions and  a  temporizing  policy,  to  form  an  impracticable  coalition  be- 
tween the  world  and  the  church.  We  apprehend  the  ground  he  has 
taken  is  untenable,  and  that  he  will  be  likely  to  please  neither  party. 
By  the  friends  of  the  gospel  he  will  be  in  danger  of  being  shunned  as 
an  "  accuser  of  the  brethren ;"  while  his  new  associates  regard  him 
with  the  contempt  due  to  a  sycophant. 

It  must  give  the  enlightened  friends  of  religion  concern,  to  witness 
a  spirit  gaining  ground  among  us,  which,  to  speak  of  it  in  the  most 
favourable  terms,  is  calculated  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord.  The  vivid 
attention  to  moral  discrimination,  the  vigilance  which  seizes  on  what 
is  deemed  reprehensible,  is  unhappily  turned  to  the  supposed  failings 


288  REVIEW  OF 

of  good  men,  much  to  the  satisfaction,  no  doubt,  of  an  ungodly  world. 
The  practice  of  caricaturing  the  most  illustrious  men  has  grown  fash- 
ionable among  us.  With  grief  and  indignation  we  lately  witnessed 
an  attempt  of  this  kind  on  the  character  of  Mr,  Whitfield,  made,  if 
our  information  be  correct,  by  the  present  author ;  in  which  every 
shade  of  imperfection  which  tradition  can  supply,  or  ingenuity  sur- 
mise, is  industriously  brought  forward  for  the  purpose  of  sinking  him 
ill  public  estimation.  Did  it  accomplish  the  object  intended  by  it?  It 
certainly  did  not.  While  the  prejudice  entertained  against  Whitfield 
by  the  enemies  of  religion  was  already  too  violent  to  admit  of  increase, 
its  friends  Avere  perfectly  astonished  at  the  littleness  of  soul,  and  the 
callousness  to  every  kind  feeling,  which  could  delight  in  mangling 
such  a  character.  It  was  his  misfortune  to  mingle  freely  with  differ- 
ent denominations,  to  preach  in  unconsecrated  places,  and  convert 
souls  at  uncanonical  hours :  whether  he  acted  right  or  wrong  in  these 
particulars,  it  is  not  our  province  to  inquire.  That  he  approved  him- 
self to  his  own  conscience,  there  is  not  the  least-room  to  doubt.  Ad- 
mitting his  conduct,  in  the  instances  alluded  tO)  to  have  been  inconsis- 
tent with  his  clerical  engagements,  let  it  be  temperately  censured  ;  but 
let  it  not  efi'ace  from  our  recollection  the  patient  self-denial,  the  inex- 
tinguishable ardour,  the  incredible  labours,  and  the  unexampled  success 
of  that  extraordinary  man.  The  most  zealous  votaries  of  the  church 
need  be  under  no  apprehension  of  her  being  often  disgraced  by  pro- 
ducing such  a  man  as  Mr.  Whitfield.  Nil  admirari  is  an  excellent 
maxim  when  applied,  as  Horace  intended  it,  to  the  goods  of  fortune : 
when  extended  to  a  character,  nothing  can  be  more  injurious.  A 
sensibility  to  the  impression  of  great  virtues  bordering  on  enthu- 
siasm, accompanied  with  a  generous  oblivion  of  the  little  imperfec- 
tions with  which  they  are  joined,  is  one  of  the  surest  prognostics  of 
excellence. 

"  Verum,  ubi  plura  nitent — non  ego  paucis 
Offendar  maculis,  quas  aut  incuria  fudit, 
Aut  humana  parum  cavit  natura — " 

The  modern  restorers  of  the  piety  of  the  Church  of  England  were 
eminent  for  their  godly  simplichy  and  fidelity.  Sincerely  attached, 
as  it  became  them,  to  the  establishment  of  which  they  were  ministers, 
their  spirit  was  too  enlarged,  too  ardent,  too  disinterested  to  sufier 
them  to  become  the  tools  of  a  party,  or  to  confound  the  interests  of 
Christianity  with  those  of  any  external  communion.  From  their  being 
looked  upon  as  innovators,  as  well  as  from  the  paucity  of  their  num- 
bers, they  were  called  to  endure  a  much  severer  trial  than  falls  to  the 
lot  of  their  successors.  They  bore  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day : 
they  laboured,  and  others  have  entered  into  their  labours.  We  feel, 
with  respect  to  the  greater  part  of  those  who  succeed  them,  a  confi- 
dence that  they  will  continue  to  tread  in  their  steps.  But  we  cannot 
dissemble  our  concern  at  perceiving  a  set  of  men  rising  up  among 
them,  ambitious  of  new-modelling  the  party,  who,  if  they  have  too  much 
virtue  openly  to  renounce  their  principles,  yet  have  too  little  firmness 
to  endure  the  consequences  ;  timid,  temporizing  spirits,  who  would  refine 
into  insipidity,  polish  into  weakness,  and,  under  we  know  not  what  pre- 


ZEAL  WITHOUT  INNOVATION.  289 

tences  of  regularity,  moderation,  and  a  care  not  to  offend,  rob  it  utterly 
of  that  energy  of  character  to  which  it  owes  its  success.  If  tliey  learn, 
from  this  and  other  writers  of  a  similar  description,  to  insult  their 
brethren,  fawn  upon  their  enemies,  and  abuse  their  defenders,  they 
M'ill  soon  be  frittered  to  pieces  ;  they  will  become,  "  like  other  men," 
feeble,  enervated,  and  shorn  of  their  strength.  We  would  adjure  them 
to  be  on  their  guard  against  the  machinations  of  this  new  sect.  We 
cannot  suspect  them  of  the  meanness  of  submitting  to  be  drilled  by 
their  enemies,  whom  they  are  invited  to  approach  in  the  attitude  of 
culprits,  beseeching  them  (in  our  author's  phrase)  to  "  inquire  whether 
there  may  not  be  some  found  among  them  of  unexceptionable  char- 
acter !"  We  trust  they  will  treat  such  a  suggestion  with  ineffable 
contempt. 

After  the  taste  our  readers  have  had  of  this  writer's  spirit,  they  will 
not  be  surprised  at  his  entire  disapprobation  of  Mr.  Overton's  work. 
The  discordance  of  sentiment  must  be  great  between  him  who  wishes 
to  betray,  and  him  whose  aim  is  to  defend.  Mr.  Overton,  in  behalf  of 
his  brethren,  boldly  appeals  from  their  accusers  to  the  public.  This 
writer  crouches  to  those  very  accusers,  approaches  them  in  a  suppli- 
cating tone,  and,  as  the  price  of  peace,  offers  the  heads  of  his  brethren 
in  a  charger.  Overton,  by  a  copious  detail  of  facts,  and  by  a  series 
of  irrefragable  arguments,  establishes  their  innocence :  this  writer 
assents  to  their  condemnation,  entreating  only  that  execution  may  be 
respited  till  an  inquiry  is  made  into  the  degrees  of  delinquency.  The 
author  of  "The  True  Churchman  ascertained"  clothes  himself  with  the 
light  of  truth  :  the  author  of  "  Zeal  without  Innovation"  hides  himself 
in  the  thickest  gloom  of  equivocation. 

Before  we  close  this  article,  wc  must  entreat  our  reader's  patience 
while  we  make  one  observation  relating  to  the  permanence  of  the 
ecclesiastical  establishment.  It  is  possible  the  dignitaries  of  the  church 
may  be  at  a  loss  to  decide  whether  the  services  of  the  evangelical 
class  shall  be  accepted  or  rejected ;  but  we  are  persuaded  the  people 
will  feel  no  difficulty  in  determining  whether  or  not  to  continue  their 
attendance  at  the  places  from  whence  they  are  banished.  Teachers 
of  the  opposite  description  have  already  lost  their  hold  on  the  public 
mind ;  and  they  will  lose  it  more  and  more.  Should  the  secession 
from  the  established  church  become  so  general  as  that  its  services  are 
no  longer  the  objects  of  popular  suffrage,  it  will  be  deprived  of  its 
firmest  support.  For  the  author  of  the  Alliance  acknowledges  that 
the  compact  between  churcli  and  state,  which  he  allows  to  be  a  virtual 
rather  than  a  formal  one,  rests  mainly  upon  the  circumstance  of  the 
established  religion  being  that  of  the  majority,  without  which  it  becomes 
incapable  of  rendering  those  services  to  the  state  for  the  sake  of  which 
its  privileges  and  emoluments  were  conferred.  Nothing  but  an  extreme 
infatuation  can  accelerate  such  an  event.  But  if  pious  and  orthodox 
men  be  prevented  from  entering  info  the  church,  or  compelled  to  retire 
from  it,  the  people  will  retire  with  them ;  and  the  apprehension  of  the 
church  being  in  danger,  which  has  so  often  been  the  watchword  of 
party,  will  become,  for  once,  well  foimded. 
Vol.  II.— T 


REVIEW 


GISBORNE'S    SERMONS. 


Sermons,  principally  designed  to  illustrate  and  to  enforce  Christian 
Morality.     % //te  iJet;.  T.  Gisborne,  A.  M.     8vo.  pp.  430.     1809. 

We  have  read  these  sermons  with  so  much  satisfaction,  that,  were 
it  in  our  power  to  aid  their  circulation  by  any  testimony  of  our  appro- 
bation, we  should  be  almost  at  a  loss  for  terms  sufficiently  strong  and 
emphatic.  Though  the  excellent  author  is  possessed  already  of  a 
large  share  of  the  public  esteem,  we  are  persuaded  these  discourses 
will  make  a  great  accession  to  his  celebrity.  Less  distinguished  by 
any  predominant  quality  than  by  an  assemblage  of  the  chief  excel- 
lences in  pulpit  composition,  they  turn  on  subjects  not  very  commonly 
handled,  and  discuss  them  wuh  a  copiousness,  delicacy,  and  force 
which  evince  the  powers  of  a  master.  They  are  almost  entirely  upon 
moral  subjects,  yet  equally  remote  from  the  superficiality  and  dryness 
with  which  these  subjects  are  too  often  treated.  The  morality  of  Mr. 
Gisborne  is  arrayed  in  all  the  majesty  of  truth  and  all  the  beauties 
of  holiness.  In  perusing  these  sermons,  the  reader  is  continually 
reminded  of  real  life,  and  beholds  human  nature  under  its  most  unso- 
phisticated aspect,  without  ever  being  tempted  to  suppose  himself  in 
the  schools  of  pagan  philosophy.  We  cannot  better  explain  the  pro- 
fessed scope  and  object  of  the  author  than  by  copying  a  few  sentences 
from  his  preface. 

"  Of  late  years  it  has  been  loudly  asserted,  that  among  clergymen 
who  have  showed  themselves  very  earnest  in  doctrinal  points,  adequate 
regard  has  not  been  evinced  to  moral  instruction.  The  charge  has 
perhaps  been  urged  with  the  greatest  vehemence  by  persons  who  have 
employed  little  trouble  in  examining  into  its  truth.  In  many  cases  it 
has  been  groundless,  in  many  exaggerated.  In  some  instances  there 
has  been  reason,  I  fear,  for  a  degree  of  complaint ;  and  in  more,  a 
colourable  pretext  for  the  imputation.  I  believe  that  some  preachers, 
shocked  on  beholding  examples,  real  or  supposed,  of  congregations 
starving  on  mere  morality,  substituted  for  the  bread  of  life,  eager  to 
lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  the  gospel,  and  ultimately  appre- 


REVIEW  OF  GISBORNE'S  SERMONS.  291 

hensive  lest  their  own  hearers  should  suspect  them  of  reverting  towards 
legality,  have  not  given  to  morals,  as  fruits  of  faith,  the  station  and  the 
ainphtude  to  which  they  have  a  scriptural  claim.  Anxious  lest  others 
should  mistake,  or  lest  they  should  themselves  be  deemed  to  mistake, 
the  branch  for  the  root ;  not  satisfied  with  proclaiming  to  the  branch, 
as  they  were  bound  habitually  to  proclaim,  Thou  bearest  not  the  root, 
but  the  root  thee,  they  have  shrunk  from  the  needful  office  of  tracing 
the  ramifications.  They  have  not  left  morality  out  of  their  discourses, 
but  they  have  kept  it  too  much  in  the  background.  They  have 
noticed  it  shortly,  generally,  incidentally ;  in  a  manner  which,  while 
perhaps  they  were  eminent  as  private  patterns  of  moral  duties,  might 
not  sufficiently  guard  an  imwary  hearer  against  a  reduced  estimate 
of  practical  holiness,  nor  exempt  themselves  from  the  suspicion  of 
undervaluing  moral  obedience." — 'Pref.  pp.  vii.  viii. 

To  the  truth  of  these  remarks  we  cordially  assent,  as  they  point  to 
a  defect  in  the  ministration  of  some  excellent  men,  which  the  judicious 
part  of  the  public  have  long  lamented,  and  which  Mr.  Gisborne,  in  his 
present  work,  has  taught  his  contemporaries  how  to  remedy.  Extremes 
naturally  lead  to  each  other.  The  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gospel  had 
been  so  long  neglected  by  the  most  celebrated  preachers,  and  the  per- 
nicious consequences  of  that  neglect,  in  wearing  out  every  trace  of 
genuine  religion,  had  been  so  deeply  felt,  that  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  if  the  first  attempts  to  correct  the  evil  were  accompanied 
with  a  tendency  to  the  contrary  extreme.  In  many  situations,  those 
who  attempted  to  revive  doctrines  which  had  long  been  considered  as 
obsolete,  found  themselves  much  in  the  same  circumstances  as  mis- 
sionaries, having  intelligence  to  impart  before  unknown,  and  exposed 
to  all  the  contempt  and  obloquy  which  assailed  the  first  preachers  of 
Christianity.  While  they  were  engaged  in  such  an  undertaking,  it  is 
not  at  all  surprising  that  they  confined  their  attention  almost  entirely  to 
the  doctrines  peculiar  to  the  Christian  religion,  with  less  care  to  incul- 
cate and  display  the  moral  precepts  which  it  includes  in  common  with 
other  systems  than  their  intrinsic  importance  demanded.  They  were 
too  much  occupied  in  removing  the  rubbish  and  laying  the  foundations, 
to  permit  them  to  carry  their  superstructure  very  high.  They  insisted; 
in  general  terms,  on  tlie  performance  of  moral  duties ;  urged  tho 
necessity  of  that  holiness  without  which  "  none  shall  see  the  Lord ;" 
and,  by  a  forcible  application  of  truth  to  the  conscience,  produced 
in  many  instances  the  most  surprising  as  well  as  tlie  most  happy 
effects.  But  still,  in  consequence  of  limiting  their  ministry  too  much 
to  the  first  elements  of  the  gospel,  and  dwelling  chiefly  on  topics  cal- 
culated to  alarm  the  careless  and  console  the  faithful,  a  wrong  taste 
began  to  prevail  among  their  hearers — a  disrelish  of  moral  discussions, 
a  propensity  to  contemplate  Christianity  under  one  aspect  alone, — that 
of  a  system  of  relief  for  the  guilty,  instead  of  a  continual  discipline  of  the 
heart.  Those  wished  for  stimulants  and  cordials  whose  situation 
required  alteratives  and  correctives.  Preachers  and  liearers  have  a 
reciprocal  influence  on  each  other;  and  the  fear  of  being  reproached 
as  '■''legal"  deterred  some  good  men  from  insisting  so  much  on  moral 

T2 


292  REVIEW  OF 

and  practical  subjects  as  their  own  good  sense  would  have  dictated. 
By  this  means  the  malady  became  more  inveterate,  till  the  inherent 
corruption  of  human  nature  converted  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  into  the  leaven  of  antinomianism.  An  error 
which  at  first  appeared  trivial  at  length  proved  serious ;  and  thus  it 
came  to  pass  that  the  fabric  of  sacred  truth  was  almost  universally 
reared  in  such  a  manner  as  to  deviate  sensibly  from  the  primitive  model. 

When  we  look  at  Christianity  in  the  New  Testament,  we  see  a  set 
of  discoveries,  promises,  and  precepts,  adapted  to  influence  the  whole 
character :  it  presents  an  object  of  incessant  solicitude,  in  the  pursuit 
of  which  new  efforts  are  to  be  exerted  and  new  victories  accomplished, 
in  a  continued  course  of  well-doing,  till  we  reach  the  heavenly  man- 
sions. There  is  scarce  a  spring  in  the  human  frame  and  constitution 
it  is  not  calculated  to  touch,  nor  any  portion  of  human  agency  which  is 
exempted  from  its  control.  Its  resources  are  inexhaustible ;  and  the 
considerations  by  which  it  challenges  attention  embrace  whatever  is 
most  awful  or  alluring  in  the  whole  range  of  possible  existence. 
Instead  of  being  allowed  to  repose  on  his  past  attainments,  or  to  flatter 
himself  with  the  hope  of  success  witliout  the  exercise  of  diligence  and 
watchfulness,  the  Christian  is  commanded  to  work  out  his  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling.  In  the  actual  exhibition  of  religion  the  soli- 
citude of  serious  minds  has  been  made  to  turn  too  much  on  a  particular 
crisis,  which  has  been  presented  in  a  manner  so  insulated  that  nothing 
in  the  order  of  means  seemed  instrumental  to  its  production.  In  short, 
things  have  been  represented  in  such  a  manner  as  was  too  apt  to  pro- 
duce despondency  before  conversion,  and  presumption  after  it. 

It  must  be  allowed,  the  judicious  management  of  practical  subjects  is 
more  difficult  than  the  discussion  of  doctrinal  points,  which  may  also 
account  in  part  for  the  prevalence  of  the  evil  we  are  now  speaking  of. 
In  treating  a  point  of  doctrine,  the  habit  of  belief  almost  supersedes  the 
necessity  of  proof:  the  mind  of  the  hearer  is  usually  preoccupied  in 
favour  of  the  conclusions  to  be  established  ;  nor  is  much  address  or 
ingenuity  necessary  to  conduct  him  in  a  path  in  which  he  has  long 
been  accustomed  to  tread.  The  materials  are  prepared  to  the  preacher's 
hands ;  a  set  of  texts,  with  their  received  interpretations,  stand  ready 
for  his  use  ;  the  compass  of  thought  which  is  required  is  very  limited  ; 
and  this  little  circle  has  been  beaten  so  often  that  an  ordinary  under- 
standing moves  through  it  with  mechanical  facility.  To  discuss  a 
doctrinal  position  to  the  satisfaction  of  a  common  audience  requires  the 
smallest  possible  exertion  of  intellect.  The  tritest  arguments  are  in 
fact  the  best :  the  most  powerful  considerations  to  enforce  assent  are 
rendered  by  that  very  quality  the  most  conspicuous,  as  the  sun  an- 
nounces himself  by  his  superior  splendour.  In  delineating  the  duties 
of  life  the  task  is  very  diflferent.  To  render  these  topics  interesting,  it 
is  necessary  to  look  abroad,  to  contemplate  the  principles  of  human 
nature,  and  the  diversified  modes  of  human  feeling  and  action.  The 
preacher  has  not  to  do  with  a  few  rigid  and  unbending  propositions : 
he  is  to  contemplate  and  portray  a  real  state  of  things — a  state  which 
is  continually  changing  its  aspect  while  it  preserves  its  essential  char- 


GISBORNE'S  SERMONS.  293 

acter,  and  the  particulars  of  which  mock  the  powers  of  enumeration. 
If  he  does  not  think  with  great  originaUty,  he  must  at  least  think  for 
himself:  he  must  use  his  own  eyes,  though  he  may  report  nothing  but 
what  has  been  observed  before.  As  there  lies  an  appeal  on  these 
occasions  to  the  unbiassed  good  sense  and  observation  of  unlettered 
minds,  the  deficiencies  of  an  injudicious  instructer  are  sure  to  be  de- 
tected. His  principles  will  fail  of  interesting  for  want  of  exemplifica- 
tion, or  his  details  will  be  devoid  of  dignity,  and  his  delineations  of 
human  life  disgust  by  their  deviation  from  nature  and  from  truth. 

In  points  of  casuistry,  difficulties  will  occur  which  can  only  be  solved 
and  disentangled  by  nice  discrimination,  combined  with  extensive  know- 
ledge- The  general  precepts,  for  example,  of  justice  and  humanity 
may  be  faithfully  inculcated  and  earnestly  insisted  on  without  aflbrding  a 
ray  of  useful  direction  to  a  doubting  conscience.  While  all  men  acknow- 
ledge the  indispensable  obligation  of  these  precepts,  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  discover  what  is  the  precise  line  of  action  they  enforce.  In 
the  application  of  general  rules  to  particular  cases  of  conduct,  many 
relations  must  be  surveyed,  opposing  claims  must  be  reconciled  and 
adjusted,  and  the  comparative  value  of  difierent  species  of  virtue  estab- 
lished upon  just  and  solid  principles. 

These  difficulties  have  been  evaded,  rather  than  overcome,  by  the 
greater  part  of  moralizing  preachers ;  who  have  contented  themselves 
with  retailing  extracts  from  the  works  of  their  celebrated  predecessors, 
or  with  throwing  together  a  few  loose  and  undigested  thoughts  on  a 
moral  duty,  without  order  and  arrangement,  or  the  smallest  effort  to 
impress  its  obligation  upon  the  conscience,  or  to  deduce  it  from  its 
proper  sources.  To  the  total  want  of  unction,  to  the  cold,  pagan,  anti- 
ehristian  cast  of  these  compositions,  joined  to  their  extreme  super- 
ficiality, must  be  ascribed  in  a  great  measure  the  disgust  which  many 
serious  minds  have  contracted  against  the  introduction  of  moral  topics 
into  the  pulpit.  Our  readers  will  not  suspect  we  mean  to  apply  this 
censure  indiscriminately,  or  that  we  are  insensible  to  the  extraordinary 
merits  of  a  Barrow  or  of  a  Tillotson,  who  have  cultivated  Christian 
morals  with  so  universal  an  applause  of  the  English  public.  We 
admire,  as  much  as  it  is  possible  for  our  readers  to  admire,  the  rich 
invention,  the  masculine  sense,  the  exuberantly  copious,  yet  precise 
and  energetic  diction,  which  distinguish  the  first  of  these  writers,  who, 
by  a  rare  felicity  of  genius,  united  in  himself  the  most  distinguishing 
qualities  of  the  mathematician  and  of  the  orator.  We  are  astonished  at 
perceiving  in  the  same  person  and  in  the  same  composition  the  close 
logic  of  Aristotle  combined  with  the  amplifying  powers  of  Plato.  The 
candour,  the  good  sense,  the  natural  arrangement,  the  unpremeditated 
graces  of  Tillotson,  if  they  excite  less  admiration,  give  us  almost  equal 
pleasure.  It  is  indeed  the  peculiar  boast  of  the  English  nation  to  have 
produced  a  set  of  divines  who,  being  equally  acquainted  with  classical 
antiquity  and  inspired  writ,  and  capable  of  joining,  to  the  deepest  results 
of  unassisted  reason,  the  advantages  of  a  superior  illumination,  have 
delivered  down  to  posterity  a  body  of  moral  instruction  more  pure, 
copious,  and  exact  than  subsists  among  any  other  people ;  and  had 


294  REVIEW  OF 

they  appealed  more  frequently  to  the  peculiar  principles  of  the  gospel, 
had  they  infused  a  more  evangelical  spirit  into  their  discourses,  instead 
of  representing  Christianity  too  much  as  a  mere  code  of  morals,  they 
would  have  left  us  nothing  to  wish  or  to  regret.  Their  decision  of 
moral  questions  was  for  the  most  part  unquesiionably  just ;  but  they 
contemplated  moral  duties  too  much  apart,  neglecting  to  blend  them 
sufficiently  with  the  motives  and  principles  of  pure  revelation,  after  the 
manner  of  the  inspired  writers ;  and,  supposing  them  to  believe,  they 
forgot  to  inculcate  the  fundamental  truth — tliat  "  by  the  deeds  of  the 
law  no  jlesh  living  shall  be  justified.''''  Those  internal  dispositions 
whence  right  conduct  can  alone  flow  were  too  little  insisted  on ;  the 
agency  of  the  Spirit  was  not  sufficiently  honoured  or  acknowledged ; 
and  the  subordination  of  the  duties  of  the  second  to  those  of  the  first 
table  not  enough  kept  in  view.  The  virtues  they  recommended  and 
enforced  were  too  often  considered  as  the  native  growth  of  the  human 
heart,  instead  of  being  represented  as  '■'■fruits  of  the  Spirit.''''  Jesus 
Christ  was  not  laid  as  the  foundation  of  morality ;  and  a  very  sparing 
use  was  made  of  the  motives  to  its  practice  deduced  from  his  promises, 
his  example,  and  his  sacrifice.  Add  to  this,  that  the  labours  of  these 
great  men  were  employed  almost  entirely  in  illustrating  and  enforcing 
the  obligation  of  particular  duties,  while  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross 
engaged  little  of  their  attention,  except  so  far  as  it  was  impugned  by 
the  objections  of  infidels  or  mutilated  by  the  sophistry  of  papists. 
From  the  perusal  of  their  writings  the  impression  naturally  results, 
that  a  behef  of  the  evidences  of  revealed  religion,  joined  to  a  correct 
deportment  in  social  life,  is  adequate  to  all  the  demands  of  Chris- 
tianity. For  these  reasons,  much  as  we  admire^  we  cannot  recom- 
mend them  in  an  unqualified  manner,  nor  consider  them  as  safe  guides 
in  religion. 

By  these  remarks  we  intend  no  offence  to  any  class  of  Christians. 
That  the  celebrated  authors  we  have  mentioned,  with  others  of  a  similar 
stamp,  have  refined  the  style  and  improved  the  taste  of  the  English 
pulpit,  while  they  have  poured  a  copious  stream  of  knowledge  on  the 
public  mind,  we  are  as  ready  to  acknowledge  as  their  warmest  admirers  ; 
but  we  will  not  dis.gTiise  our  conviction,  that  for  the  just  delineation  of 
the  "  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  we  must  look  to  the  Baxters,  the  Howes, 
and  the  Ushers  of  an  earlier  period.  He  who  wishes  to  catch  the  flame 
of  devotion  by  listening  to  the  words  "  which  are  spirit  and  afe  life," 
will  have  recourse  to  the  writings  of  the  latter,  notwithstanding  their 
intricacy  of  method  and  prolixity  of  style. 

It  is  with  peculiar  satisfaction  we  call  the  attention  of  our  readers  to 
a  work  which  unites  in  a  considerable  degree  the  excellences  of  each 
iclass  of  divines  alluded  to,  without  their  defects.  The  discourses  are 
on  the  following  subjects :  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  the  Foundation  of 
Morality  ;  on  the  Evils  resulting  from  false  Principles  of  Morality  ;  on 
the  Changes  produced  by  the  Coming  of  Christ  in  the  Situation  of 
Men  as  to  the  Divine  Law  ;  Justification  not  attainable  by  Acts  of  Mo- 
rality ;  on  Living  after  the  Flesh  or  after  the  Spirit ;  the  Love  of  God 
an  Inducement  to  strict  Mojality  j  on  Brotherly  Love ;  on  ihe  Loy.e  of 


GISBORNE'S  SERMONS.  295 

Money ;  on  the  Sacrifice  of  Worldly  Interest  to  Duty ;  on  Christian 
Bounty  ;  on  Discontent ;  on  Worldly  Anxiety  ;  on  Christian  Obedience 
to  Civil  Rulers ;  Christian  Patriotism  illustrated  by  the  Character  of 
Nehemiah  ;  on  quiet  Diligence  in  our  Proper  Concerns  ;  on  Partiality; 
on  Suspicion ;  on  doing  Evil  to  produce  Good ;  on  ihe  Superiority  of 
Moral  Conduct  required  of  Christians.  The  reader  will  perceive  it 
was  not  the  author's  design  to  make  a  systematic  arrangement  of  Chris- 
tian duties,  and  that  there  are  many  vices  and  virtues  not  comprehended 
within  the  plan  of  his  present  work.  In  the  discussion  of  the  subjects 
which  he  has  selected,  he  has  evinced  much  observation  of  human  life, 
a  deep  insight  into  the  true  principles  of  morals,  and  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  genius  of  the  Christian  religion.  He  has  erected 
his  edifice  upon  a  solid  basis ;  in  the  choice  of  his  materials  he  has 
carefully  excluded  the  wood,  hay,  and  stubble,  and  admitted  no  orna- 
ments but  such  as  are  fitted  to  grace  the  temple  of  God. 

The  intelligent  reader  will  discover  in  these  discourses  the  advantage 
resulting  from  studying  morality  as  a  science.  It  will  yield  him  great 
satisfaction  to  find  the  writer  ascending  on  all  occasions  to  first  prin- 
ciples, forming  his  decision  on  comprehensive  views,  separating  what 
is  specious  from  what  is  solid,  and  enforcing  morality  by  no  motives 
which  are  suspicious  or  equivocal.  He  will  not  see  vanity  or  ambition 
pressed  into  the  service  of  virtue,  or  any  approach  to  the  adoption  of 
that  dangerous  policy  which  proposes  to  expel  one  vice  by  encouraging 
another.  He  will  meet  with  no  flattering  encomiums  on  the  purity 
and  dignity  of  our  nature,  none  of  those  appeals  to  the  innate  goodness 
of  the  human  heart,  which  are  either  utterly  ineffectual,  or,  if  they 
restrain  from  open  profligacy,  diffuse  at  the  same  time  the  more  subtle 
poison  of  pride  and  self-righteousness.  Mr.  Gisborne  never  confounds 
the  functions  of  morality  with  the  offices  of  the  Saviour,  nor  ascribes 
to  human  virtue,  polluted  and  imperfect  at  best,  any  part  of  those 
transcendent  eff"ects  which  the  New  Testament  teaches  us  to  impute 
to  the  mediation  of  Christ.  He  considers  the  whole  compass  of  moral 
duties  as  branches  of  religion,  as  prescribed  by  the  will  of  God,  and 
no  farther  acceptable  to  him  than  as  they  proceed  from  religious  motives. 

The  disposition  in  mankind  to  seek  justification  by  the  works  of  the 
law  has  been  ■jo  much  flattered  and  encouraged  by  the  light  in  which 
moral  duties  have  been  usually  placed,  that  Mr.  Gisborne  has  shown 
his  judgment  by  countpraeting  this  error  at  the  outset.  We  recommend 
to  the  serious  attention  of  our  readers,  with  this  view,  the  fourth 
sermon,  on  Justification  not  attainable  by  Acts  of  Morality.  We  have 
never  seen  a  publication  in  which  that  important  argument  is  set  in  a 
more  clear  and  convincing  light. 

Though  Mr.  Gisborne  for  a  series  of  years  has  distinguished 
himself  as  the  able  opponent  of  the  doctrine  of  expediency,  yet  on  no 
occasion  has  he  exerted  more  ability  in  this  cause  than  in  his  present 
work.  We  recommend  it  to  the  thinking  part  of  the  public  to  forget 
for  a  moment  that  they  are  reading  a  sermon,  and  conceive  themselves 
attending  to  the  arguments  of  a  sober  and  enlightened  philosopher. 
To  purify  the  sources  of  morals,  and  to  detect  the  principles  of  a  theory, 
which  enables  us  to  err  by  system  and  be  depraved  by  rule,  is  to  do 


296  REVIEW  OF 

good  of  tlie  highest  sort ;  as  he  who  dimmishes  the  mass  of  human 
calamity  by  striking  one  from  the  hst  of  diseases,  is  a  greater  benefactor 
to  manlcind  than  the  physician  who  performs  the  greatest  number  of 
cures.  It  is  in  this  hght  we  look  upon  the  labours  of  the  present 
author  ;  to  whom  we  are  more  indebted  than  to  any  other  individual  for 
discrediting  a  doctrine  which  threatens  to  annihilate  religion,  to  loosen 
the  foundation  of  morals,  and  to  debase  the  character  of  the  nation. 
We  recommend  to  universal  perusal  the  admirable  discourse,  on  the 
Evils  resulting  from  false  Principles  of  Morality. 

The  tv/o  discourses  which  propose  to  illustrate  the  Character  of 
Nehemiah  contain  the  most  valuable  instruction,  adapted  in  particular 
to  the  use  of  those  who  occupy  the  higher  ranks,  or  who  possess 
stations  of  commanding  influence  and  authority.  They  evince  just 
and  enlarged  views  of  the  duties  attached  to  elevated  situations,  and 
breathe  the  purest  spirit  of  Christian  benevolence.  The  sermon  on 
the  Love  of  Money  displays,  perhaps,  most  of  the  powers  of  the  orator, 
and  demonstrates  in  how  masterly  a  manner  the  author  is  capable, 
when  he  pleases,  of  enforcing  "  the  terrors  of  the  Lord."  It  contains 
some  awful  passages,  in  which,  by  a  kind  of  repeated  asseveration 
of  the  same  truth,  and  the  happy  reiteration  of  the  same  words,  an 
effect  is  produced  resembling  that  of  repeated  claps  of  thunder.  We 
shall  present  our  readers  with  the  following  specimen. 

"Fourthly.  Meditate  on  the  final  condition  to  which  the  lover 
of  money  is  hastening.  The  covetous,  the  man  who  is  under  the 
dominion  of  the  love  of  money,  '  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.' 
In  the  present  life  he  has  a  foretaste  of  the  fruits  of  his  sin.  He  is 
restless,  anxious,  dissatisfied  :  at  one  time  harassed  by  uncertainty  as 
to  the  probable  result  of  his  projects ;  at  another,  soured  by  the 
failure  of  them ;  at  another,  disappointed  in  the  midst  of  success,  by 
discerning,  too  late,  that  the  same  exertions  employed  in  some  other 
line  of  advantage  would  have  been  more  productive.  But  suppose 
him  to  have  been,  through  life,  as  free  from  the  effects  of  these  sources 
of  vexation  as  the  most  favourable  picture  could  represent  him,  '  he 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.'  He  may  not  have  been  a 
miser ;  but  he  was  a  lover  of  money.  He  may  not  have  been  an 
extortioner ;  but  he  was  a  lover  of  money.  He  may  not  have  been 
fraudulent ;  but  he  was  a  lover  of  money.  '  He  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.'  He  has  had  his  day  and  his  object.  He  has 
sought,  and  he  may  have  accumulated,  earthly  possessions.  By  their 
instrumentality  he  may  have  gratified  many  other  appetites  and  desires. 
But  he  did  not  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  therefore  he  shall  not 
obtain  it.  He  '  loved  the  world  ;'  therefore  he  '  shall  perish  with  the 
world.'  He  has  wilfully  bartered  his  soul  for  money.  In  vain  is  he 
now  aghast  at  his  former  madness.  In  vain  does  he  now  detest  the 
idol  which  he  worshipped.  The  gate  of  salvation  is  closed  against 
him.  He  inherits  the  bitterness  of  unavailing  remorse,  the  horrors 
of  eternal  death."— Pp.  145,  146. 

If  we  were  called  to  specify  the  discourse  in  the  present  volume 
that  appeared  to  us  the  most  ingenious  and  original,  we  should  be 
inclined  to  point  to  the  eighteenth,  on  Suspicion. 


GISBORNE'S  SERMONS.  297 

Having  expressed  our  warm  approbation  of  this  performance,  justice 
compels  us  to  notice  wliat  appear  to  us  its  principal  blemishes  :  which, 
however,  are  so  overbalanced  by  the  merit  of  the  whole,  that  we 
should  scarcely  deem  them  worthy  of  remark,  were  it  not  requisite 
to  vindicate  our  claim  to  impartiality.  Against  the  sentiments  or  the 
arrangement  of  these  discourses  we  have  nothing  to  object :  the  former 
are  almost  invariably  just  and  important,  often  striking  and  original ; 
the  latter  is  natural  and  easy,  preserving  the  spirit  of  method  even 
where  it  may  seem  to  neglect  the  form  ;  equally  remote  from  the 
looseness  of  an  harangue  and  the  ostentation  of  logical  exactness. 
With  the  style  of  this  work  we  cannot  say  that  we  are  quite  so  much 
satisfied.  Perspicuous,  dignified,  and  correct,  it  yet  wants  something 
more  of  amenity,  variety,  and  ease.  Instead  of  that  flexibility  which 
bends  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  different  conceptions  which  occur, 
it  preserves  a  sort  of  uniform  stateliness.  The  art  of  transposition, 
carried,  in  our  opinion  to  excess,  together  with  the  preference  of  learned 
to  plain  Saxon  words,  give  it  an  air  of  Latinity,  which  must  necessarily 
render  it  less  intelligible  and  acceptable  to  unlettered  minds.  It  is 
indeed  but  fair  to  remark,  that  the  discourses  appear  to  have  been 
chiefly  designed  for  the  use  of  the  higher  classes.  But  while  we  allow 
this  apology  its  just  weight,  we  are  still  of  opinion  that  the  composi- 
tion might  have  assumed  a  more  easy  and  natural  air,  without  losing 
any  thing  of  its  force  or  beauty.  Addresses  from  the  pulpit  should, 
in  our  apprehension,  always  make  some  approach  to  the  character 
of  plain  and  popular. 

Another  blemish  which  strikes  us  in  this  work,  is  the  frequent  use 
of  interrogations,  introduced,  not  only  in  the  warm  and  impassioned 
parts,  where  they  are  graceful,  but  in  the  midst  of  argumentative 
discussion.  We  have  been  struck  with  the  prevalence  of  this  practice 
in  the  more  recent  works  of  clergymen,  beyond  those  of  any  other 
order  of  men.  With  Demosthenes  we  know  interrogation  was  a  very 
favourite  figure ;  but  we  recollect,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  chiefly 
confined  to  the  more  vehement  parts  of  his  speeches,  in  which,  like 
the  eruptions  of  a  furnace,  he  broke  out  upon  and  consumed  his  oppo- 
nents. In  him  it  was  the  natural  expression  of  triumphant  indignation  : 
after  he  had  subdued  and  laid  them  prostrate  by  the  force  of  his  argu- 
ments, by  his  abrupt  and  terrible  interrogations  he  trampled  them  in 
the  mire.  In  calm  and  dispassionate  discussion,  the  frequent  use  of 
questions  appears  to  us  unnatural ;  it  discomposes  the  attention  by  a 
sort  of  starting  and  irregular  motion,  and  is  a  violation  of  dignity,  by 
affecting  to  be  lively  where  it  is  sufficient  praise  to  be  cogent  and 
convincing.  In  a  word,  when,  instead  of  being  used  to  give  additional 
vehemence  to  a  discourse,  they  are  interspersed  in  a  series  of  arguments, 
as  an  expedient  for  enlivening  the  attention  and  varying  the  style,  they 
have  an  air  of  undignified  flippancy.  We  should  scarcely  have 
noticed  these  little  circumstances  in  an  inferior  work ;  but  we  could 
not  satisfy  ourselves  to  let  them  pass  without  observation  in  an  author 
who,  to  merits  of  a  more  substantial  nature,  joins  so  many  and  such 
just  pretensions  to  the  character  of  a  fine  writer. 


REVIEW 

OF 

GREGORY'S    LETTERS. 


Letters  to  a  Friend  on  the  Evidences,  Doctrines,  and  Duties  of  the 
Christian  Religion.  By  Olinthus  Gregory,  LL.D.,  of  the  Royal 
Military  Academy,  Woolwich.      1812. 

As  this  is  a  work  of  no  ordinary  merit,  and  written  upon  a  subject 
which  all  must  confess  to  be  of  the  last  importance,  we  shall  endeavour, 
after  being  indulged  with  a  few  preliminary  remarks,  to  give  a  pretty 
copious  analysis  of  its  contents  ;  not  doubting  the  greater  part  of  our 
readers  will  be  solicitous  to  avail  themselves  of  the  rich  entertainment 
and  instruction  which  its  perusal  will  unquestionably  afford.  The 
first  volume  is  employed  in  the  discussion  of  a  subject  which  has 
engaged  the  powers  of  the  wisest  of  men  through  a  series  of  ages ; 
and  minds  of  every  size,  and  of  every  diversity  of  acquisition,  having 
contributed  their  quota  towards  its  elucidation,  the  accumulation  of 
materials  is  such,  that  it  has  become  more  necessary,  perhaps  more 
difficult,  to  arrange  than  to  invent.  In  the  conduct  of  so  extensive  an 
argument,  the  talents  of  the  writer  will  chiefly  appear  in  giving  the 
due  degree  of  relief  and  prominence  to  the  different  branches  of  the 
subject, — in  determining  what  should  be  placed  in  a  strong  and  brilliant 
light,  and  what  should  be  more  slightly  sketched, — and  disposing  the 
whole  in  such  a  manner  as  shall  give  it  the  most  impressive  effect. 
If  there  is  little  room  for  the  display  of  invention,  other  powers  are 
requisite,  not  less  rare  or  less  useful  ;  a  nice  and  discriminating  judg- 
ment, a  true  logical  taste,  and  a  talent  of  extensive  combination.  An 
ordinary  thinker  feels  himself  lost  in  so  wide  a  field;  is  incapable 
of  classifying  the  objects  it  presents  ;  and  wastes  his  attention  on  such 
as  are  trite  and  common,  instead  of  directing  it  to  those  which  are 
great  and  interesting.  If  there  are  subjects  which  it  is  difficult  to 
discuss  for  want  of  data  to  proceed  upon, — and,  while  they  allure  by 
their  appearance  of  abstract  grandeur,  are  soon  found  to  lose  themselves 
in  fruitless  logomachies  and  unmeaning  subtleties,  such  as  the  greater 
part  of  the  discussions  on  time,  space,  and  necessary  existence, — ■ 
there  are  others  whose  difficulty  springs  from  an  opposite  cause,  from 
the  immense  variety  of  distinct  topics  and  considerations  involved  in 


REVIEW  OF  GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  299 

their  discussion,  of  which  the  divine  origination  of  Christianity  is  a 
striking  specimen  ;  whicli  it  has  become  difficult  to  treat  as  it  ought  to 
be  treated,  merely  in  consequence  of  the  variety  and  superabundance 
of  lis  proofs. 

On  this  account  we  suspect  that  this  great  cause  has  been  not  a  little 
injured  by  the  injudicious  conduct  of  a  certain  class  of  preachers  and 
writers,  who,  in  just  despair  of  being  able  to  handle  a  single  topic  of 
religion  to  advantage,  for  want  of  having  paid  a  devout  attention  to  the 
Scriptures,  fly  like  harpies  to  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  on  which 
they  are  certain  of  meeting  with  something  prepared  to  their  hands, 
which  they  can  tear,  and  soil,  and  mangle  at  their  pleasure. 

Diripiuntque  dapes,  contactuque  omnia  fcedant. 

The  famine,  also,  with  whicli  their  prototypes  in  Virgil  threatened  the 
followers  of  iEneas,  is  not  more  dismal  than  that  which  prevails 
among  their  hearers.  The  folly  we  are  adverting  to  did  not  escape 
the  observation  nor  the  ridicule  of  Swift,  who  remarked  in  his  days 
that  the  practice  of  mooting  on  every  occasion  the  question  of  the  origin 
of  Christianity  was  much  more  likely  to  unsettle  the  faith  of  the  simple 
than  to  counteract  the  progress  of  infidelity.  It  is  dangerous  to  famil- 
iarize every  promiscuous  audience  to  look  upon  religion  as  a  thing 
which  yet  remains  to  be  proved,  to  acquaint  them  with  every  sophism 
and  cavil  which  a  perverse  and  petulant  ingenuity  has  found  out,  un- 
accompanied, as  is  too  often  the  case,  with  a  satisfactory  answer  ;  thus 
leaving  the  poison  to  operate,  without  the  antidote,  in  minds  which 
ought  to  be  strongly  imbued  with  the  principles  and  awed  by  the 
sanctions  of  the  gospel.  It  is  degrading  to  the  dignity  of  a  revelation 
established  through  a  succession  of  ages  by  indubitable  proofs,  to  be 
adverting  every  moment  to  the  hypothesis  of  its  being  an  imposture, 
and  to  be  inviting  every  insolent  sophist  to  wrangle  with  us  about  the 
title,  when  we  should  be  cultivating  the  possession.  The  practice  we 
are  now  censuring  is  productive  of  another  inconvenience.  The  argu- 
ment of  the  truth  of  Christianity  being  an  argument  of  accumulation, 
or,  in  other  words,  of  that  nature  that  the  force  of  it  results  less  from 
any  separate  consideration  than  from  an  almost  infinite  variety  of 
circumstances,  conspiring  towards  one  point  and  terminating  in  one 
conclusion ;  this  concentration  of  evidence  is  broken  to  pieces  when 
an  attempt  is  made  to  present  it  in  superficial  descants ;  than  which 
nothing  can  be  conceived  better  calculated  to  make  what  is  great 
appear  little,  and  what  is  ponderous,  light.  The  trite  observation  that 
a  cause  is  injured  by  the  adoption  of  feeble  arguments,  rests  on  a 
basis  not  often  considered  perhaps  by  those  who  most  readily  assent 
to  its  truth.  We  never  think  of  estimating  the  powers  of  the  imagina- 
tion on  a  given  subject  by  the  actual  performance  of  the  poet ;  but 
if  he  disappoint  us,  we  immediately  ascribe  his  failure  to  the  poverty 
of  his  genius,  without  accusing  his  subject  or  his  art.  The  regions 
of  fiction  we  naturally  conceive  to  be  boundless  ;  but  when  an  attempt 
is  made  to  convince  us  of  the  truth  of  a  proposition  respecting  a  matter 
of  fact  er  a  branch  of  morals,  we  take  it  for  granted  that  he  who  pro- 


300  REVIEW  OF 

poses  it  has  made  himself  perfectly  master  of  his  argument ;  and  that, 
as  no  consideration  has  been  neglected  that  would  favour  his  opinion, 
■\ve  shall  not  err  in  taking  our  impression  of  the  cause  from  the  defence 
of  its  advocate.  If  that  cause  happen  to  be  such  as  involves  the  dearest 
interests  of  mankind,  we  need  not  remark  how  much  injury  it  is  capable 
of  sustaining  from  this  quarter. 

Let  us  not  be  supposed  by  these  remarks  to  comprehend  within 
our  censure  the  writer  who,  amid  the  multifarious  proofs  of  revelation, 
selects  a  single  topic  with  a  view  to  its  more  elaborate  discussion,  pro- 
vided it  be  of  such  a  nature  that  it  will  support  an  independent  train 
of  thought ;  such,  for  example,  as  Paley  has  pursued  in  his  Horae 
Paulinae,  to  which  a  peculiar  value  ought  to  be  attached  as  a  clear 
addition  to  the  body  of  Christian  evidences.  All  we  mean  to  assert 
is,  that  it  is  incomparably  better  to  be  silent  on  the  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity than  to  be  perpetually  adverting  to  them  in  a  slight  and  super- 
ficial manner;  and  that  a  question  so  awful  and  momentous  as  that 
relating  to  the  origin  of  the  Christian  religion  ought  not  to  be  debased 
into  a  trivial  commonplace.  Let  it  be  formally  discussed,  at  proper 
intervals,  by  such  men,  and  such  only,  as  are  capable  of  bringing  to  it 
the  time,  talents,  and  information  requisite  to  place  it  in  a  commanding 
attitude.  That  the  author  of  the  present  performance  is  possessed  of 
these  qualifications  to  a  very  great  degree  will  sufficiently  appear 
from  the  analysis  we  propose  to  give  of  the  work,  and  the  specimens 
we  shall  occasionally  exhibit  of  its  execution. 

It  is  ushered  in  by  a  modest  and  dignified  dedication  to  Colonel 
Mudge,  lieutenant-governor  of  that  royal  military  institution  of  which 
the  author  is  so  disting-uished  an  ornament.  The  whole  is  cast  into 
the  form  of  Letters  to  a  Friend ;  and  the  first  volume,  we  are  given  to 
understand,  formed  the  subject  of  an  actual  correspondence.  As  much 
of  the  epistolary  style  is  preserved  as  is  consistent  with  the  nature  of  a 
serious  and  protracted  argument,  without  ill-judged  attempts  at  refresh- 
ing the  attention  of  the  reader  by  strokes  of  gayety  and  humour.  The 
mind  of  the  writer  appears  to  have  been  too  deeply  impressed  with  his 
theme  to  admit  of  such  excursions,  the  absence  of  which  will  not,  we 
are  persuaded,  be  felt  or  regretted. 

Before  he  proceeds  to  state  the  direct  proofs  of  the  divinity  of 
the  Christian  religion,  he  shows,  in  a  very  striking  manner,  the 
absurdities  which  must  of  necessity  be  embraced  by  those  who  deny 
all  pretences  to  revelation ;  enumerating,  in  the  form  of  a  creed,  the 
various  strange  and  untenable  positions  which  form  the  subject  of 
skeptical  belief.  In  this  part  of  the  work,  that  disease  in  the  intel- 
lectual temperament  of  infidels  is  placed  in  a  stronger  and  juster  light 
than  we  remember  to  have  seen  it,  which  may  not  improperly  be 
denominated  the  credulity  of  unbelievers.  This  representation  forms 
the  contents  of  the  first  letter. 

The  necessity  of  revelation  is  still  more  indisputably  evinced  by  an 
appeal  to  facts,  and  a  survey  of  the  opinions  which  prevailed  among 
the  most  enlightened  heathens  respecting  God,  moral  duty,  and  a 
future  state.     Under  each  of  these  heads,  our  author  has  selected, 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  301 

with  great  judgment,  numerous  instances  of  the  flagrant  and  peniicious 
errors  entertained  by  the  most  celebrated  pagan  legislators,  poets,  and 
philosophers,  sufficient  to  demonstrate,  beyond  all  contradiction,  the 
inability  of  unassisted  reason,  in  its  most  improved  and  perfect  state, 
to  conduct  man  to  virtue  and  happiness,  and  tlie  necessity,  thence 
resulting,  of  superior  aid.  Much  diligence  of  research  and  much 
felicity  of  arrangement  are  displayed  in  the  management  of  this  com- 
plicated topic,  where  the  reader  will  find  exhibited,  in  a  condensed 
form,  the  most  material  facts  adduced  in  Leland's  voluminous  work 
on  this  subject.  All  along  he  holds  the  balance  with  a  firm  and  steady 
hand,  without  betraying  a  disposition  either  to  depreciate  the  value  of 
those  discoveries  and  improvements  to  which  reason  really  attained, 
or  charging  the  picture  of  its  aberrations  and  defects  with  deeper 
shades  than  justly  belong  to  it.  The  most  eminent  among  the 
pagans  themselves,  it  ought  to  be  remembered,  who,  having  no  other 
resource,  were  best  acquainted  with  its  weakness  and  its  power,  never 
dreamed  of  denying  the  necessity  of  revelation :  this  they  asserted  in 
the  most  explicit  terms,  and  on  some  occasions  seem  to  have  expected 
and  anticipated  the  communication  of  such  a  benefit.  We  make  no 
apology  for  citing,  from  the  present  work,  the  following  remarkable 
passage  out  of  Plato,  tending  both  to  confirm  the  fact  of  a  revelation 
being  anticipated,  and  to  evince,  supposing  nothing  supernatural  in  the 
case,  the  divine  sagacity  of  that  great  author.  He  says,  "  This  just 
person  (the  inspired  teacher  of  whom  he  had  been  speaking)  must  be 
poor,  and  void  of  all  qualifications  but  those  of  virtue  alone ;  that  a 
wicked  world  would  not  bear  his  instructions  and  reproofs  ;  and  there- 
fore, within  three  or  four  years  after  he  began  to  preach,  he  should  be 
persecuted,  imprisoned,  scourged,  and  at  last  be  put  to  death."*  In 
whatever  light  we  consider  it,  this  must  be  allowed  to  be  a  most 
remarkable  passage,  whether  we  regard  it  as  merely  the  conjecture 
of  a  highly  enlightened  mind,  or  as  the  fruit  of  prophetic  suggestion : 
nor  are  we  aware  of  any  absurdity  in  supposing  that  the  prolific  Spirit 
scattered  on  certain  occasions  some  seeds  of  truth  amid  that  mass  of 
corruption  and  darkness  which  oppressed  the  pagan  world.  The 
opinion  we  have  ventured  to  advance  is  asserted  in  the  most  positive 
terms  in  several  parts  of  Justin  Martyr's  Second  Apology.  Without 
pursuing  this  inquiry  further,  we  shall  content  ourselves  with  remark- 
ing, that,  as  the  sufliciency  of  mere  reason  as  the  guide  to  truth  never 
entered  into  the  conception  of  pagans,  so  it  could  never  have  arisen  at 
all  but  in  consequence  of  confounding  its  results  with  the  dictates 
of  revelation,  which,  since  its  publication,  has  never  ceased  to  modify 
the  speculations  and  aid  the  inquiries  of  those  who  are  least  disposed 
to  bow  to  its  authority.  On  all  questions  of  morality  and  religion,  the 
streams  of  thought  have  flowed  through  channels  enriched  with  a 
celestial  ore,  whence  they  have  derived  the  tincture  to  which  they  are 
indebted  for  their  rarest  and  most  salutary  qualities. 

Before  we  dismiss  the  subject  we  would  just  observe,  that  the  ineffi- 
cacy  of  unassisted  reason  in  religious  concerns  appears  undeniably  in 

*  De  Repnblica,  Lib.  ii. 


302  REVIEW  OF 

two  points  i  the  doubtful  manner  in  which  the  wisest  pagans  were 
accustomed  to  express  themselves  respecting  a  future  state,  the  exist- 
ence of  which  Warburton  is  confident  none  of  the  philosophers  believed ; 
and  their  proud  reliance  on  their  own  virtue,  which  was  such  as  left  no 
room  for  repentance.  Of  a  future  state  Socrates,  in  the  near  prospect 
of  death,  is  represented  by  Plato  as  expressing  a  hope,  accompanied 
with  the  greatest  uncertainty ;  and,  with  respect  to  the  second  point, 
the  lofty  confidence  in  their  own  virtue,  which  we  have  imputed 
to  them,  the  language  of  Cicero,  in  one  of  his  familiar  letters,  is 
awfully  decisive  :  "  Nee  enim  dum  ero,  angor  ulla  re,  cum  omni  caream 
culpa ;  et  si  non  ero,  sensu  omni  carebo." — "  While  I  exist,  I  shall  be 
troubled  at  nothing,  since  I  have  no  fault  whatever ;  and  if  I  shall  not 
exist,  I  shall  be  devoid  of  all  feeling."*  So  true  is  it  that  life  and 
immortality  were  brought  to  light  by  the  Saviour ;  and  that  until  he 
appeared,  the  greatest  of  men  were  equally  unacquainted  with  their 
present  condition  and  their  future  prospects. 

The  next  letter,  which  is  the  fourth  in  the  series,  is  on  mysteries  in 
religion.  Aware  that,  while  the  prejudice  against  whatever  is  myste- 
rious subsists,  the  saving  truths  of  the  gospel  can  find  no  entrance,  the 
author  has  taken  great, and,  as  far  as  the  force  of  argument  can  operate, 
successful  pains  to  point  out  the  weakness  of  the  foundations  on  which 
that  prejudice  rests.  He  has  shown,  by  a  large  induction  of  particu- 
lars in  natural  religion,  natural  philosophy,  and  in  pure  and  mixed 
mathematics,  that  with  respect  to  each  of  these  sciences,  we  arrive,  by 
infaUible  steps,  to  conclusions  of  which  we  can  form  no  clear,  deter- 
minate conceptions ;  and  that  the  higher  parts  of  mathematics  espe- 
cially, the  science  which  glories  in  its  superior  light  and  demonstration, 
teem  with  mysteries  as  incomprehensible  to  the  full  as  those  which 
demand  our  assent  in  revelation.  His  skill  as  a  mathematician,  for 
which  he  has  long  been  distinguished,  serves  him  on  this  occasion  to 
excellent  purpose,  by  enabling  him  to  illustrate  his  subject  by  well- 
selected  examples  from  his  favourite  science ;  and  by  that  means  to 
prove,  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner,  that  the  mysterious  parts  of 
Christianity  are  exactly  analogous  to  the  difficulties  inseparable  from 
other  branches  of  knowledge,  not  excepting  those  which  make  the 
justest  pretensions  to  demonstration.  We  run  no  hazard  in  affirming, 
that  rarely,  if  ever,  have  superior  philosophical  attainments  been  turned 
to  a  better  account,  or  a  richer  off'ering  brought  from  the  fields  of  science 
into  the  temple  of  God.  Some  of  his  illustrations,  being  drawn  from 
the  sublimer  speculations  of  mathematics,  must  necessarily  be  unin- 
telligible to  ordinary  readers  :  but  many  of  them  are  plain  and  popular ; 
and  he  has  succeeded  in  making  the  principle  on  which  he  reasons 
throughout  perfectly  plain  and  perspicuous,  which  is  this — that  we  are 
able,  in  a  multitude  of  instances,  to  ascertain  the  relations  of  things, 
while  we  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  nature  of  the  things  themselves. 
If  the  distinction  itself  is  not  entirely  new,  the  force  of  argument  with 
which  it  is  supported,  and  the  extent  to  which  its  illustration  is  carried, 
are  such  as  evince  much  original  thinking.      We  should  seriously 

*  Vol.  I.  p.  51. 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  303 

recommend  this  part  of  the  work  to  the  pertisal  of  the  barrister,  if  he 
were  capable  of  understanding  it ;  and  to  all,  without  exception,  who 
have  been  perverted  by  the  shallow  and  ambiguous  sophism,  first 
broached,  we  believe,  by  Dr.  Foster,  that  where  mystery  begins 
religion  ends  ;  when  the  fact  is,  that  religion  and  mystery  both  begin 
and  end  together,  a  portion  of  what  is  inscrutable  to  our  faculties  being 
intimately  and  inseparably  blended  with  its  most  vital  and  operative 
truths.     A  religion  without  its  mysteries  is  a  temple  without  its  God. 

Having  thus  marked  out  the  ground,  removed  the  rubbish,  and  made 
room  for  the  foundation,  our  author  proceeds,  with  the  skill  of  a  master, 
to  erect  a  firm  and  noble  structure,  conducting  the  argument  for  the 
truth  of  Christianity  through  all  its  stages,  and  commencing  his  labours 
in  this  part  of  his  subject  with  establisbing  the  genuineness  and  authen- 
ticity of  the  sacred  volume.  As  he  manifestly  aims  at  utility,  not  at 
display,  we  are  glad  to  find  he  has  availed  himself  of  the  profound 
and  original  reasoning  of  Hartley,  which  he  has  fortified  all  along 
with  ingenious  reflections  of  his  own,  and  crowned  by  an  appeal  to 
the  principal  testimonies  of  Christian  and  pagan  antiquity.  The  letter 
devoted  to  this  subject  is  long,  but  not  more  so  than  the  occasion 
demanded,  and  is  replete  with  varied  and  extensive  information.  To 
the  whole  he  has  annexed  a  very  accurate  and  particular  account  of 
the  researches  and  discoveries  of  Dr.  Buchanan,  made  during  his  visit 
to  the  Syrian  churches  in  India ;  nor  are  we  aware  that  there  is  a 
single  consideration  of  moment,  tending  to  confirm  the  genuineness 
and  integrity  of  the  Scriptures  in  their  present  state,  which,  in  the 
course  of  our  author's  extended  investigation,  has  escaped  his  notice. 
By  some  he  will  be  blamed  for  placing  the  proofs  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  sacred  records  before  the  argument  from  prophecy  and  miracles  ; 
but  we  think  he  is  right  in  adopting  such  an  arrangement ;  since  the 
reasoning  on  this  part  not  only  stands  independent  of  the  sequel,  but 
greatly  abridges  his  subsequent  labour,  by  enabling  him  to  appeal  on 
every  occasion  to  the  testimony  of  Scripture,  not  indeed  as  inspired,  but 
as  an  authentic  document,  that  point  having  been  previously  established ; 
while  it  is  in  perfect  unison  with  that  solicitude  he  everywhere  evinces 
to  imbue  the  mind  of  his  readers  with  a  serious  and  devotional  spirit. 
Here  is  a  book  of  a  singular  character  and  of  high  antiquity,  from 
which  Christians  profess  to  derive  the  whole  of  their  information  on 
religion ;  and  it  comes  down  to  us  under  such  circumstances  that 
every  thing  relating  to  it  is  capable  of  being  investigated  apart  from 
the  consideration  of  prophecies  and  miracles,  except  its  claim  to  inspira- 
tion. Why,  then,  should  not  the  pretensions  of  this  book  be  examined  at 
the  very  outset,  as  far  as  they  are  susceptible  of  an  independent  examina- 
tion ;  since  the  proof  of  its  being  genuine  and  authentic  will  extend  its 
consequences  so  far  into  the  subsequent  matter  of  discussion,  as  well 
as  exert  a  great  and  salutary  influence  on  the  mind  of  the  inquirer? 

The  next  letter  is  devoted  to  the  subject  of  prophecy ;  in  which, 
after  noticing  a  few  of  the  more  remarkable  predictions  relating  to  the 
revolutions  of  power  and  empire,  he  descends  to  a  more  particular 
investigation  of  the  prophecies  relating  to  the  Messiah,  which  he 


304  REVIEW  OF 

arranges  under  three  heads :  such  as  respect  the  time  and  place  of  his 
appearance  ;  his  character,  doctrine,  rejection,  and  final  triumph  ;  and 
the  exact  correspondence  between  his  contemptuous  treatment  and 
sufferings,  and  the  representations  of  the  ancient  oracles.  Under  the 
last  he  embraces  the  opportunity  of  rescuing  the  proof  from  the  fifty- 
third  chapter  of  Isaiah  from  the  cavils  of  the  Jews,  as  well  as  from 
the  insinuation  of  certain  infidels  that  the  prophecy  was  written  after 
the  event ;  which  he  triumphantly  refutes  by  an  appeal  to  a  remarkable 
passage  in  the  books  of  Origen  against  Celsus.  In  confirming  the 
inference  from  prophecy,  we  again  meet  with  a  judicious  application 
of  the  author's  mathematical  skill,  by  which  he  demonstrates,  from  the 
doctrine  of  chances,  the  almost  infinite  improbability  of  the  occurrence 
of  even  a  small  number  of  contingent  events  predicted  of  any  one 
individual ;  and  the  absolute  impossibility,  consequently,  of  accounting 
for  the  accomplishment  of  such  numerous  predictions  as  were  accom- 
plished in  the  person  of  the  Messiah,  without  ascribing  it  to  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  the  Deity. 

From  the  consideration  of  prophecy,  he  proceeds  to  the  evidence 
of  miracles,  and  the  credibility  of  human  testimony.  He  begins  with 
stating,  in  few  and  simple  terms,  but  with  much  precision,  the  just 
idea  of  a  miracle,  which,  he  remarks,  has  oftener  been  obscured  than 
elucidated  by  definition ;  while  the  sentiments  entertained  by  good 
men  upon  the  subject  have  been  almost  uniformly  correct  when  they 
have  not  been  entangled  or  heated  by  controversy.  This  branch 
of  tlie  evidences  of  revelation  is  certainly  very  little  indebted  to  the 
introduction  of  subtle  refinements.  In  resting  the  evidence  of  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  revelations  on  the  ground  of  miracles,  the  author 
restricts  his  proposition  to  uncontrolled  miracles ;  on  the  propriety  of 
which,  different  judgments  will  probably  be  formed  by  his  readers. 
We  believe  him  to  be  right :  since,  admitting  the  limitation  to  be  un- 
necessary, it  is  but  an  extreme  of  caution,  a  leaning  to  the  safe  side ; 
for  who  will  deny  that  it  is  much  easier  to  prove  it  to  be  inconsistent 
with  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the  Deity,  to  permit  an  itncontrolled 
miracle  to  be  performed  in  support  of  error,  than  to  demonstrate,  from 
a  metaphysical  consideration  of  the  powers  and  capacities  of  spiritual 
agents  of  a  high  order,  their  incapacity  of  accomplishing  what,  to  our 
apprehensions,  must  appear  supernatural  ?  The  writer  of  this  at  least 
must  confess  for  himself  he  could  never  find  any  satisfaction  in  such 
speculations,  not  even  in  those  of  Farmer,  ingenious  as  they  are  ;  which 
always  appeared  to  him  to  be  like  advancing  to  an  object  by  a  circuitous 
and  intricate  path,  rather  than  taking  the  nearest  road.  But  to  return 
to  the  present  performance.  After  exhibiting  the  most  approved  an- 
swers to  the  flimsy  sophistry  of  Hume,  intended  to  evince  the  incredi- 
bility of  miracles, — and  corroborating  them  by  a  copious  illustration 
of  the  four  criteria  of  miraculous  facts  suggested  by  Leslie,  in  his 
admirable  work  entitled  A  Short  Method  with  the  Deists, — he  reduces 
the  only  suppositions  which  can  be  formed  respecting  the  miracles 
recorded  in  the  New  Testament  to  the  four  following,  which  we  shall 
give  in  the  words  of  the  author : — 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  305 

"  Either,  first,  the  recorded  accounts  of  those  miracles  were  absolute 
fictions,  wickedly  invented  by  some  who  had  a  wish  to  impose  upon 
mankind. 

"  Or,  secondly,  Jesus  did  not  work  any  true  miracles  ;  but  the  senses 
of  the  people  were,  in  sonae  way  or  other,  deluded,  so  that  they  be- 
lieved he  really  did  perform  miracles,  when  in  fact  he  did  not. 

"  Or,  thirdly,  that  the  spectators  were  not  in  any  way  deluded,  but 
knew  very  well  he  wrought  no  miracles ;  yet  were  all  (both  enemies 
and  friends,  the  Jews  themselves  not  excepted,  though  they  daily 
'sought  occasion  against  him')  united  in  a  close  confederacy,  to  per- 
suade the  world  he  wrouglit  the  most  surprising  things.  So  that,  while 
some  actively  circulated  reports  of  those  amazing  occurrences,  the 
rest  kept  their  counsel,  never  offering  to  unmask  the  fraud,  but  managing 
the  matter  with  so  much  dexterity  and  cunning,  and  such  an  exact 
harmony  and  correspondence,  that  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ's  perform- 
ing miracles  should  become  current,  should  obtain  almost  universal 
credit,  and  not  a  single  person  he  able  to  disprove  it. 

"  Or,  fourthly,  that  he  did  actually  perform  those  astonishing  works  ; 
and  that  the  accounts  given  of  them  by  the  Christian  writers  in  the 
New  Testament  are  authentic  and  correct. 

"  He  that  does  not  adopt  the  last  of  these  conclusions  will  find  it  a 
matter  of  very  small  consequence  which  of  the  other  three  he  chooses; 
for  that  the  stories  cannot  be  fictions  is  evident  from  the  reasonings 
of  Leslie,  already  adduced  ;  and  it  will  be  seen  further,  from  a  moment's 
consideration,  that  the  denial  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  any 
way,  leads  necessarily  to  the  admission  of  a  series  of  real  miracles 
of  another  kind." 

He  closes  this  part  of  his  disquisition  with  an  elaborate  confutation 
of  the  notion  too  generally  admitted  by  the  advocates  of  revelation, 
that  the  evidence  of  miraculous  facts  necessarily  grows  weaker  in 
proportion  to  the  distance  of  the  time  at  which  they  were  performed ; 
and  in  no  part  does  the  vigour  of  his  understanding  appear  to  more 
advantage  than  in  his  reasonings  on  this  point,  where,  among  many 
excellent,  we  meet  with  the  following  profound  remark : — 

"  It  is  only,"  he  observes,  "  with  regard  to  the  facts  recorded  in  the 
Bible,  that  men  ever  talk  of  the  daily  diminution  of  credibility.  Who 
complains  of  a  decay  of  evidence  in  relation  to  the  actions  of  Alex- 
ander, Hannibal,  Pompey,  or  Caesar  ?  How  many  fewer  of  the  events 
recorded  by  Plutarch,  or  Polybius,  or  Livy,  are  believed  now  (on 
account  of  a  diminution  of  evidence)  than  were  believed  by  Mr. 
Addison,  or  Lord  Clarendon,  or  Geoflrey  Chaucer?  We  never  hear 
persons  wishing  they  had  lived  ages  earlier,  that  they  might  have  had 
better  proofs  that  Cyrus  was  the  conqueror  of  Babylon,  that  Darius 
was  beaten  in  several  battles  by  Alexander,  that  Titus  destroyed  Jeru- 
salem, that  Hannibal  was  entirely  routed  by  Scipio,  or  Pompey  by 
Julius  Cssar  ;  though  we  sometimes  find  men  of  ardent  and  enterprising 
minds  exclaiming,  '  O  that  I  had  lived  and  been  present  when  such 
splendid  events  occurred,  how  lively  an  interest  should  I  have  taken 
in  such  scenes,  how  much  concern  in  their  termination  !'    And,  indeed, 

Vol.  IL— U 


306  REVIEW  OF 

it  is  the  frequent  hearing  of  such  exclamations  that  causes  men  to 
confound  weight  of  evidence  with  warmth  or  depth  of  feeling ;  and  to 
lose  sight  of  the  essential  difference  between  real  evidence,  or  the  true 
basis  of  belief  in  history,  and  the  sensible  impression  or  influence  which 
such  history  may  make  upon  the  mind.'''' 

We  have  only  to  remark,  before  we  dismiss  this  subject,  that,  whereas 
the  evidence  of  fads  which  occurred  at  a  distant  period  is  usually 
placed  under  the  head  of  successive  evidence,  this  distinction,  as 
applicable  to  the  miracles  of  the  gospel,  must  either  be  rejected 
altogether,  or  admitted  with  a  caution  against  being  misled  by  the  am- 
biguous use  of  words.  The  evidence,  in  this  case,  is  not  to  be 
confounded  for  a  moment  with  that  of  a  report  transmitted  through 
successive  ages  to  the  present  time,  since  the  record  which  contains 
the  miraculous  facts  carries  us  back  to  the  apostolic  age ;  so  that, 
admitting  its  antiquity  to  be  what  it  pretends,  of  which  there  is  the 
most  satisfactory  evidence,  the  only  link  in  the  succession  is  that  which 
separates  the  performers  or  spectators  of  the  miracles  from  their 
narrators,  who  in  the  case  before  us,  however,  are  frequently  the  same 
persons. 

In  order  to  give  that  conspicuous  place  which  is  due  to  the  greatest 
and  most  momentous  of  these  miracles,  as  well  as  to  do  justice  to  the 
independent  train  of  proofs  by  which  it  is  supported,  Dr.  G.  has  assigned 
a  separate  letter  to  the  Resurrection  of  Christ,  in  which  he  has  placed 
this  great  fact  in  the  clearest  light ;  and,  to  remove  every  shadow 
of  hesitation  arising  from  the  minute  variations  in  the  account  given 
of  it  by  the  evangelists,  has  taken  the  pains  to  digest  from  their  sepa- 
rate narratives  a  distinct  statement  of  the  whole  transaction,  which,  as 
far  as  we  have  had  time  to  examine  it,  appears  very  satisfactory. 

To  this  succeeds  an  ample  illustration  of  the  argument  for  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  drawn  from  its  early  and  extensive  propagation ; 
where  the  fact  is  placed  beyond  all  contradiction,  by  numerous  and 
decisive  testimonies,  adduced  from  the  ancient  apologists  and  pagan 
writers.  The  dates  of  the  ten  successive  persecutions  are  accurately 
assigned ;  and  the  most  strikiuff  circinnstances  attending  the  last,  in 
particular,  are  distinctly  and  forcibly  exhibited.  This  forms  the  subject 
of  the  ninth  letter,  which  closes  with  some  admirable  observations 
on  the  intrinsic  excellence  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  tending  to  show 
that  it  corresponds  to  all  the  characters,  and  fulfils  all  the  indications, 
which  a  revelation  from  heaven  might  be  expected  to  possess. 

The  remaining  letters  which  compose  this  volume  are  employed  in 
proving  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  answering  various 
miscellaneous  objections  and  cavils  advanced  against  the  Bible. 
Although  we  have  already  adduced  some  specimens  of  the  author's 
style  and  composition,  and  shall  have  occasion  to  produce  more  in  the 
course  of  our  strictures  on  the  second  volume,  yet  we  cannot  deny 
ourselves  the  pleasure  of  laying  before  our  readers  the  following 
highly  beautiful  and  eloquent  passage.  Speaking  of  the  analogy 
between  the  difficulties  ofiiered  in  the  sciences  and  the  mysteries  of 
religion,  he  observes, — - 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS. 


307 


"  Philosophers,  notwithstanding  all  these  difficulties,  recommend  the 
cultivation  and  diflusion  of  the  sciences,  because  of  their  tendency  to 
sharpen  the  intellectual  faculties  of  man,  and  meliorate  his  condition 
in  society.  With  how  much  greater  reason  and  earnestness,  then 
should  Christians  recommend  the  dissemination  and  adoption  of  '  pure 
and  undefiled  religion,'  considering  its  direct  tendency  to  enlarge  the 
understanding,  and  yet  fill  it  with  the  contemplation  of  Deity ;  to 
purify  and  harmonize  the  passions,  to  refine  the  moral  sense,  to  qualify 
and  strengthen  for  every  function  in  life  ;  to  sustain  under  the  pressure 
of  arfliction,  to  aflbrd  consolation  in  sickness,  and  enable  us  to  triumph 
in  death  ! 

"  What  other  science  can  even  make  a  pretension  to  dethrone  op- 
pression, to  abolish  slavery,  to  exclude  war,  to  extirpate  fraud,  to 
banish  violence,  to  revive  the  withered  blossoms  of  paradise  ?  Such 
are  the  pretensions  and  blessings  of  genuine  Christianity ;  and  wher- 
ever genuine  Christianity  prevails,  they  are  experienced.  Thus  it 
accomplishes  its  promises  on  earth,  where  alone  it  has  enemies ;  it 
will,  therefore,  accomplish  them  in  heaven,  where  its  friends  reign. 
Here,  indeed,  its  advocate  must  be  reduced  to  silence ;  for  how  shall 
he  display  the  meaning  of  its  celestial  promises !  How  describe 
dignity  so  vast,  or  picture  glory  so  brilliant !  How  shall  language 
-delineate  what  mind  cannot  imagine!  And  where  is  that  mind,  among 
puny  and  ephemeral  creatures,  that  can  penetrate  the  thick  obscure ; 
that  can  describe  the  light  of  perfect  knowledge,  that  can  feel  the  glow 
of  perfect  love,  that  can  breathe  the  air  of  perfect  happiness  V — Vol. 
I.  pp.  75,  76. 

We  proceed  to  notice  the  most  important  positions  and  reasonings 
contained  in  the  second  volume,  which  the  author  has  devoted  to  a 
display  of  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  Christianity.  We  are  aware 
that  many  will  suspect  him  of  a  partial  and  bigoted  attachment  to  his 
own  opinions,  in  consequence  of  the  anxiety  he  manifests  to  commu- 
nicate and  support  those  views  of  Christianity  which  in  his  estimation 
form  its  most  striking  peculiarity.  It  is  plain  our  author  considers  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  as  entirely  subservient  to  its  doctrines  ;  and 
that  he  is  consequently  far  from  supposing,  with  some  modern  divines, 
that  he  has  accomplished  his  work  by  proving  that  Christianity  is  a 
true  and  a  genuine  revelation  from  God.  He  judges  it  necessary  to 
spend  some  time  and  some  labour  in  considering  v-hat  it  is  that  is  true, 
rohat  it  is  that  is  revealed.  Were  we  not  familiar  with  the  fact,  we 
should  not  be  a  little  surprised  at  the  prevalence  of  a  contrary  persua- 
sion :  we  should  probably  think  it  strange  that  such  an  anxiety  should 
be  evinced  to  rest  the  truth  of  Christianity  on  the  firmest  possible  basis, 
along  with  such  a  profound  indifierence  to  every  attempt  to  investigate 
its  import.  Some  wonderful  charm,  it  seems,  is  contained  in  a  bare 
avowal  that  Christianity  is  a  revelation  from  God,  apart  from  any  dis- 
tinct perceptions  of  its  truths,  or  any  solemn  advertence  to  its  genuine 
scope  and  tendency.  Embalmed  and  preserved  like  some  Egyptian 
monarch,  in  the  form  of  a  venerable  and  antiquated  document,  it  is  to 
be  carefully  kept,  and  always  approached  with  respect,  but  never 

U2 


308  REVIEW  OF 

allowed  to  take  its  place  among  the  living,  nor  supposed  to  be  useful  to 
mankind  according  to  any  known  law  of  operation.  The  most  mag- 
nificent appellations  are  applied  to  it :  it  is  the  light  of  the  world,  the 
true  riches,  the  treasure  hid  in  the  field,  and  the  pearl  of  great  price. 
All  these,  and  a  thousand  other  encomiums,  are  lavished  on  the  Scrip- 
tures by  men  who  at  the  same  time  feel  no  scruple  in  insinuating  that 
this  boasted  communication  from  heaven  contains  no  truths  beyond  the 
limits  of  reason,  and  that  what  the  bulk  of  Christians  in  our  ages  have 
deemed  such  are  the  distempered  visions  of  enthusiasm,  if  they  are 
not  in  some  instances  to  be  ascribed  to  the  erroneous  conceptions  en- 
tertained by  the  apostles  of  the  religion  they  were  appointed  to  propa- 
gate. It  is  the  possession  of  a  revelation,  not  the  use,  which  these 
men  are  accustomed  to  contemplate  and  to  value.  As  the  miser  con- 
ceives himself  rich  by  the  treasure  which  he  never  employs,  so  the 
persons  to  whom  we  allude  suppose  themselves  enlightened  by  a  book 
from  which  they  profess  to  derive  no  information,  and  saved  by  a 
religion  which  is  allowed  to  engage  little  or  none  of  their  attention. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  features  in  the  character  of  those 
who,  with  exemplary  modesty,  style  themselves  rational  Christians. 
In  this  spirit,  a  distinguished  prelate  of  the  present  age*  has  published 
a  collection  of  tracts  for  the  benefit  of  the  junior  clergy,  in  which  not 
a  single  treatise  is  admitted  which  professes  to  exhibit  a  view  of 
Christian  doctrine ;  and  has  introduced  it  with  a  preface,  ingeniously 
calculated,  under  pretence  of  decrying  dogmas,  to  bring  all  such  in- 
quiries into  contempt.  It  certainly  is  not  difhcult  to  perceive  whence 
this  manner  of  thinking  prnrppds,  nor  whither  it  tends.  It  proceeds 
from  a  rooted  aversion  to  the  genuine  truths  of  revelation ;  and  had  it 
not  received  a  timely  check,  would  have  terminated  in  the  general 
prevalence  of  skepticism.  It  presents  a  neutral  ground,  on  which 
professed  Christians  and  infidels  may  meet,  and  proceed  to  assail  with 
their  joint  force  the  substantial  truth  of  our  religion.  There  is  nothing 
in  such  views  of  Christianity  to  appal  the  infidel ;  nothing  to  mortify 
the  pride,  nothing  to  check  or  control  the  exorbitances  of  that  "  carnal 
mind"  which  is  "  enmity  against  God."  In  stripping  the  religion  of 
Christ  of  all  that  is  spiritual,  it  renders  it  weak  and  inefficacious  as  an 
instrument  of  renovating  the  mind ;  and,  by  fostering  its  pride  and 
sparing  its  corruption,  prepares  it  for  shaking  off  the  restraints  of  reli- 
gion altogether.  It  gives  us,  however,  unfeigned  satisfaction  to  per- 
ceive, that  the  evil  we  so  much  deprecate  appears  to  have  met  with  a 
fatal  check  ;  and  that  the  present  times  are  distinguished  by  two  things, 
which  we  cannot  but  consider  as  most  favourable  prognostics, — an  in- 
creased attention  to  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  a  growing 
imanimity  with  respect  to  the  modes  in  which  those  doctrines  are  en- 
tertained. There  is  less  disposition  on  the  one  hand  to  receive  for 
Christianity  a  system  of  pagan  ethics,  and  on  the  other  to  confound 
points  of  doubtful  speculation  wuh  its  fundamental  doctrines.  The 
religious  zeal  of  the  present  day  is  more  open  and  catholic  than  in 

*'  BiBliop  Watson. 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  309 

former  times,  partaking  less  of  the  acrimony  of  party,  and  more  of 
the  inspiration  of  truth  and  charity.  The  line  of  demarkation  between 
sound  doctrines  and  heresy  is  better  ascertained  than  it  has  ever  been 
before ;  and  the  Christian  world  are  equally  averse  to  whatever  ap- 
proaches to  Socinian  impiety,  and  to  the  mooting  of  interminable 
questions. 

In  the  statements  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity,  there  are 
two  extremes  to  be  avoided.  The  one  is,  that  of  pusillanimously 
shrinking  from  their  bold  originality,  and  attempting  to  recommend 
them  to  the  acceptance  of  proud  and  worldly-minded  men  by  the  arti- 
fices of  palliation  and  disguise ;  of  which,  in  our  opinion,  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln  has  given  an  egregious  specimen  in  his  late  work.*  The 
other  extreme  is  that  of  stating  them  in  a  metaphysical  form,  mixing 
doubtful  deductions  with  plain  assertions,  and  thereby  encumbering 
them  with  needless  subtleties  and  refinements.  We  should  neither  be 
ashamed  of  the  dictates  of  the  Spirit,  nor  "  add  to  his  words,  lest  we 
be  reproved."  They  will  always  appear  with  the  most  advantage,  and 
carry  the  most  conviction,  when  they  are  exhibited  in  tlieir  native  sim- 
plicity, without  being  mixed  with  heterogeneous  matter,  or  with  posi- 
tions of  doubtful  authority.  In  our  apprehension,  the  true  way  of 
contemplating  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity  is  to  consider 
them  as  facts  believed  on  the  authority  of  the  Supreme  Being,  not  to 
be  proved  by  reason  ;  since  their  truth  does  not  result  from  any  percep- 
tible relations  in  our  ideas,  but  they  owe  their  existence  entirely  to  the 
will  and  counsel  of  the  Almighty  Potentate.  On  this  account,  we 
never  consider  it  safe  to  rest  their  truth  on  a  philosophical  basis,  nor 
imagine  it  is  possible  to  add  to  their  evidence  by  an  elaborate  train  of 
reasoning.  Let  the  fair  grammatical  import  of  Scripture  language  be 
investigated ;  and  whatever  propositions  are,  by  an  easy  and  natural 
interpretation,  deducible  from  thence,  let  them  be  received  as  the  dic- 
tates of  infinite  Wisdom,  whatever  aspect  they  bear,  or  whatever  dilfi- 
culties  they  present.  Repugnant  to  reason  they  never  can  be,  because 
they  spring  from  the  Author  of  it ;  but  superior  to  reason,  whose  limits 
they  will  infinitely  surpass,  we  must  expect  to  find  them,  since  they 
are  a  communication  of  such  matters  of  fact,  respecting  the  spiritual 
and  eternal  world,  as  need  not  have  been  communicated,  if  the  know- 
ledge of  them  could  have  been  acquired  from  any  other  quarter.  The 
facts  with  which  we  have  become  acquainted  in  the  natural  world 
would  appear  stupendous,  w^ere  they  communicated  merely  on  the  evi- 
dence of  testimony  ;  they  fail  to  astonish  us,  chiefly  because  they  have 
been  arrived  at  step  by  step,  by  means  of  their  analogy  to  some  pre- 
ceding one.  We  have  climbed  the  eminence  by  a  slow  progression, 
and  our  prospect  has  insensibly  widened  as  we  advanced,  instead  of 
being  transported  thither  instantaneously  by  a  superior  power.  Reve- 
lation conducts  us  to  the  truth  at  once,  without  previous  training,  with- 
out any  intellectual  process  preceding,  without  condescending  to  afford 
other  proof  than  what  results  from  the  veracity  and  wisdom  of  the 

*  Entitled  "  A  Rerulatioii  of  Calvinism." 


310  REVIEW  OF 

Creator :  and  when  we  consider  that  this  truth  respects  much  sublimer 
relations  and  concerns  than  those  which  subsist  in  the  material  world, 
— that  it  regards  the  ways  and  counsels  of  God  respecting  man's 
eternal  destiny, — is  it  surprising  it  should  embrace  Avhat  greatly  sur- 
passed our  previous  conjectures,  and  even  transcends  our  perfect  com- 
prehension ?  To  a  serious  and  upright  mind,  however,  its  discoveries 
are  no  sooner  made  than  they  become  supremely  acceptable :  the  in- 
terposition of  the  Deity  in  the  great  moral  drama  is  seen  to  be  abso- 
lutely necessary ;  since  none  but  infinite  wisdom  could  clear  up  the 
intricacies,  nor  any  power  short  of  omnipotence  relieve  the  distress  it 
produced.  These  very  truths,  which  some  ridicule  as  -mysteries,  and 
others  despise  as  dogmas,  are,  to  the  enlightened,  "  sweeter  than  honey 
or  the  honeycomb ;"  apart  from  which,  whatever  else  is  contained  in 
the  Bible  would  be  perfectly  tasteless  and  insipid.  Though  he  receives 
every  communication  from  God  with  devout  and  grateful  emotions,  he 
feels  no  hesitation  in  confessing,  that  it  is  in  these  parts  of  revelation 
he  especially  exults  and  triumphs  ;  it  is  these  which,  in  his  estimation, 
entitle  it  to  the  appellation  of  "  marvellous  light." 

If  it  is  no  small  gratification  to  find  so  perfect  a  concurrence  in 
these  sentiments  on  the  part  of  our  author,  to  find  them  stated  and 
illustrated  in  so  able  a  manner  as  they  are  throughout  this  work  is  a 
still  greater.  The  first  letter  in  this  volume  is  devoted  to  a  general 
view  of  the  Christian  doctrines,  designed  to  obviate  certain  prejudices, 
and  to  prepare  the  mind  for  that  serious  inquiry  into  their  nature  and 
import  which  cannot  fail,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  of  conducting  it 
to  the  most  satisfactory  conclusions. 

Our  author  never  loses  sight  of  the  gospel  as  a  restoratwe  dispen- 
sation :  this  is  its  primary  and  most  essential  feature ;  and  the  most 
dangerous  and  numerous  aberrations  from  it  may  be  traced  to  the 
neglect  of  considering  it  in  this  light.  It  is  not  a  proscription  of  a 
rule  of  life  to  the  innocent,  but  the  annunciation  of  a  stupendous 
method  of  relief  for  the  sinner.  Overlooking  all  petty  varieties  and 
subordinate  distinctions,  it  places  the  vvhole  human  race  on  one  level ; 
abases  them  all  in  the  dust  before  the  Infinite  Majesty  ;  and  ofiers,  indis- 
criminately, a  provision  of  sanctification  to  the  polluted,  and  of  pardon 
to  the  guilty.  These  are  the  glad  tidings ;  this  is  the  jubilee  of  the 
whole  earth,  proclaimed  in  the  songs  of  angels,  celebrated  in  the 
praises  of  the  church,  alike  in  her  militant  and  her  triumphant  state — 
whether  toiling  in  the  vale  of  mortality,  or  rejoicing  before  the  throne. 

The  second  letter  in  the  series  Avhich  composes  this  volume  is  on 
the  Depravity  of  Human  Nature,  where  the  reader  will  find  the  evi- 
dence of  that  melancholy  but  fundamental  truth  exhibited  with  much 
conciseness,  perspicuity,  and  force.  The  third  is  employed  in  stating 
the  arguments  for  the  atonement  of  Christ,  under  the  four  divisions  of 
typical,  prophetical,  historical,  and  declaratory  proofs ;  and  the  whole 
is  closed  by  a  very  luminous  and  satisfactory  answer  to  the  most 
specious  objections  against  diat  momentous  truth.  In  adverting  to  the 
objection  to  a  vicarious  sacrifice,  founded  on  the  notion  of  its  being 
junjust  that  the  innocent  should  be  appointed  to  suffer  in  the  room  of 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  311 

the  guilty,  we  meet  with  the  following  admirable  passage  of  Archbishop 
Tillotson,  remarkable  for  that  perfect  good  sense,  simplicity,  and  per- 
spicuity which  distinguish  the  writings  of  that  excellent  prelate. 

" '  If  the  matter,'  says  he,  '  were  searched  to  the  bottom,  all  this 
perverse  contention  about  our  Saviour's  suffering  for  our  benefit,  but 
not  in  our  stead,  will  signify  just  nothing.  For  if  Christ  died  for  our 
benefit,  so  as,  some  way  or  other,  by  virtue  of  his  death  and  sufferings, 
to  save  us  from  the  wrath  of  God,  and  to  procure  our  escape  from 
eternal  death ;  this,  for  aught  I  know,  is  all  that  anybody  means  by 
his  dying  in  our  stead.  For  he  that  dies  with  an  intention  to  do  that 
benefit  for  another,  or  to  save  hifti  from  death,  doth  certainly,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  die  in  his  place  and  stead.  And  if  tliey  will 
grant  this  to  be  their  meaning,  the  controversy  is  at  an  end,  and  both 
sides  are  agreed  in  the  thing,  and  do  only  differ  in  the  phrase  and 
manner  of  expression  ;  which  is  to  seek  a  quarrel,  and  an  occasion  of 
difference,  when  there  is  no  real  ground  for  it — a  thing  which  ought  to 
be  very  far  from  reasonable  and  peaceable  minds.  For  many  of  the 
Socinians  say,  that  our  Saviour's  voluntary  death  and  sufferings  pro- 
cured his  exaltation  at  the  right-hand  of  God,  and  power  and  authority 
to  forgive  sins,  and  to  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  he  pleased :  so 
that  they  grant  that  his  obedience  and  sufferings,  in  the  meritorious 
consequence  of  them,  redound  to  our  benefit  and  advantage  as  much 
as  we  pretend  to  say  they  do  ;  only  they  are  loath,  in  express  terms,  to 
acknowledge  that  Christ  died  in  our  stead  ;  and  this  for  no  other  reason 
that  I  can  imagine  but  because  they  have  denied  it  so  often  and  so 
long:  "—Vol.  II.  p.  64. 

We  have  only  to  say,  on  this  part  of  the  subject,  that  we  heartily 
commiserate  the  state  of  that  man's  mind,  who,  whatever  Socinian 
prejudices  he  may  have  felt  against  the  most  glorious  of  all  doctrines, 
that  of  the  atonement,  does  not  feel  them  shaken  at  least,  if  not  removed, 
by  the  arguments  adduced  in  this  letter. 

The  next  is  devoted  to  the  defence  of  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  our  author  evinces  in  a  masterly  manner,  from  the  predictions 
of  the  ancient  prophets,  compared  with  their  application  in  the  New 
Testament ;  from  the  conduct,  the  miracles,  and  the  discourses  of  our 
Lord  ;  from  the  declarations  of  his  apostles  ;  and  from  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  the  early  Christian  writers  and  martyrs,  before  the  council 
of  Nice.  Under  the  last  head  the  reader  will  meet  with  a  copious 
induction  of  passages  attesting  this  grand  doctrine,  selected  with  much 
judgment,  and  applied  with  great  force.  The  author  all  along  contends 
for  the  divinity  of  Christ  as  a  fundamental  tenet ;  and,  of  course,  will 
forfeit  all  pretensions  to  candour  with  rational  Christians,  on  whose 
approbation,  indeed,  he  appears  to  set  very  little  value. 

In  the  next  letter,  which  is  on  Conversion,  he  has  treated  of  the 
nature  and  necessity  of  that  new  birth  on  which  our  Lord  insisted  so 
strenuously  in  his  discourse  with  Nicodemus,  in  a  manner  which  will 
be  as  offensive  to  mere  nominal  Christians  as  it  will  be  instructive  and 
satisfactory  to  serious  and  humble  inquirers  after  truth.  He  shows, 
from  well-known  and  indubitable  facts,  the  reajity  of  such  a  change ; 


312  REVIEW  OF 

and  evinces  its  indispensable  necessity  from  the  express  declarations 
of  Scripture,  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  the  exalted  character  of 
the  Deity,  and  the  nature  of  that  pure  and  perfect  felicity  to  which 
good  men  aspire  after  death.  In  illustrating  this  subject,  he  has  made 
a  happy  use  of  Bishop  Burnet's  Narrative  of  the  Conversion  of  the 
Earl  of  Rochester, — has  carefully  guarded  his  readers  against  the 
pernicious  error  of  confounding  regeneration  with  baptism, — and  has 
closed  the  discussion  with  solving  certain  difficulties  arising  out  of  the 
subject,  which  have  often  perplexed  serious  minds. 

As  every  effect  naturally  invites  us  to  contemplate  the  cause,  he 
passes  from  conversion  to  the  consideration  of  Divine  influence,  which 
is  the  subject  of  the  succeeding  letter :  and  were  we  to  give  our 
opinion  of  the  comparative  merit  of  the  different  parts  of  this  volume, 
we  should  be  inclined  to  assign  the  palm  to  the  disquisition  on  this 
confessedly  mysterious  subject.  In  no  part,  certainly,  is  the  vigour 
of  the  author's  very  powerful  understanding  more  eminently  exerted ; 
in  none  are  the  prejudices  founded  on  a  pretended  philosophy  more 
triumphantly  dispelled.  He  has  shown,  in  the  most  satisfactory 
manner,  that  the  belief  of  an  immediate  divine  influence  on  the  mind, 
not  only  accords  with  the  sentiments  of  the  wisest  men  in  pagan  times, 
but  that  it  is  rendered  highly  reasonable  by  the  close  analogy  it  bears 
to  the  best-established  laws  of  the  material  world.  Though  there  are 
many  admirable  passages  in  this  portion  of  the  work,  which  it  would 
gratify  us  to  lay  before  our  readers,  we  must  content  ourselves  with 
the  following. 

"  No  person  can  look  into  the  world  with  the  eye  of  a  philosopher, 
and  not  soon  ascertain  that  the  grand  theatre  of  phenomena  which 
lies  before  him  is  naturally  subdivided  into  two  great  classes  of  sce- 
nery :  the  one  exhibiting  constrained,  the  other  voluntary  motion  ;  the 
former  characteristic  of  matter,  the  latter  as  clearly  indicating  some- 
thing perfectly  distinct  from  matter,  and  possessing  totally  opposite 
qualities.  '  Pulverize  matter,'  says  Saurin,  '  give  it  all  the  different 
forms  of  which  it  is  susceptible,  elevate  it  to  its  highest  degree  of 
attainment,  make  it  vast  and  immense,  moderate  or  small,  luminous  or 
obscure,  opaque  or  transparent,  there  will  never  result  any  thing  but 
figures;  and  never  will  you  be  able,  by  all  these  combinations  or 
divisions,  to  produce  one  single  sentiment,  one  single  thought.'  The 
reason  is  obvious :  a  substance  compounded  of  innumerable  parts, 
which  every  one  acknowledges  matter  to  be,  cannot  be  the  subject  of 
an  individual  consciousness ;  the  seat  of  which  must  be  a  simple  and 
undivided  substance  ;  as  the  great  Dr.  Clarke  has  long  ago  irrefragably 
shown.  Intellect  and  volition  are  quite  of  a  different  nature  from 
corporeal  figure  or  motion,  and  must  reside  in,  or  emanate  from,  a 
different  kind  of  being,  a  kind  which,  to  distinguish  it  from  matter,  is 
called  spirit,  or  mind.  Of  these,  the  one  is  necessarily  inert,  the  other 
essentially  active.  The  one  is  characterized  by  want  of  animation, 
life,  and  even  motion,  except  as  it  is  urged  by  something  ab  extra; 
the  other  is  living,  energetic,  self-moving,  and  possessed  of  power  to 
move  other  things.     We  often  fancy,  it  is  true,  that  matter  moves  mat- 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  313 

ter ;  but  this,  strictly  speaking,  is  not  correct.  When  one  wheel,  or 
lever,  in  a  system  of  machinery,  communicates  motion  to  matter,  it 
can,  at  most,  only  communicate  what  it  has  received  ;  and  if  you  trace 
the  connexion  of  the  mechanism,  you  will  at  length  arrive  at  a  tirst 
mover,  which  first  mover  is,  in  fact,  spiritual.  If,  for  example,  it  be 
an  animal,  it  is  evidently  the  spiritual  part  of  that  animal  from  whence 
the  motion  originally  springs.  If,  otherwise,  it  be  the  descent  of  a 
weight,  or  the  fall  of  water,  or  the  force  of  a  current  of  air,  or  the 
expansive  power  of  steam,  the  action  must  be  ultimately  referred  to 
what  are  styled  powers  of  nature,  that  is,  to  gravitation  or  elasticity  ; 
and  these,  it  is  now  well  known,  cannot  be  explamed  by  any  allusion 
to  material  principles,  but  to  the  indesinent  operation  of  the  Great 
Spirit  in  whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being — the  finger  of 
God  touching  and  urging  the  various  subordinate  springs,  which,  in 
their  turn,  move  the  several  parts  of  the  universe.  Thus  God  acts  in 
all  places,  in  all  times,  and  upon  all  persons.  The  whole  material 
world,  were  it  not  for  his  Spirit,  would  be  inanimate  and  inactive :  all 
motion  is  derived  either  from  his  energy  or  from  a  spirit  which  he  ani- 
mates ;  and  it  is  next  to  certain,  that  the  only  primary  action  is  that 
of  spirit,  and  the  most  direct  and  immediate  that  of  spirit  upon  spirit." 
—P.  154. 

We  doubt  not  the  intelligent  reader  will  be  of  opinion,  that  the 
author  has  gone  to  ihe  very  bottom  of  this  subject,  and  will  feel  him- 
self highly  gratified  in  seeing  it  placed  in  so  clear  and  convincing  a 
light ;  the  more  so,  as  he  has  taken  care  to  guard  against  its  most 
obvious  abuse,  by  showing  that  the  influence  for  which  he  contends  is 
not  to  be  expected  independent  of  means, — among  which  he  considers 
prayer,  and  a  conscientious  regard  to  known  duty  as  the  principal. 
We  earnestly  recommend  this  part  of  the  performance  to  such  of  our 
readers  as  have,  upon  too  light  grounds,  imbibed  philosophical  preju- 
dices against  the  doctrine  contended  for ;  a  doctrine  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  all  spiritual  religion,  though  treated  by  many  with  an 
excess  of  insolence  and  scorn,  which  can  hardly  be  accounted  for 
without  adverting  to  the  injudicious  conduct  of  its  advocates. 

The  important  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith  forms  the  subject 
of  the  next  letter  in  the  series.  Here,  after  confirming  the  position  he 
means  to  defend  by  the  authority  of  the  Homilies,  he  proceeds  to  a 
more  particular  discussion  of  the  subject,  under  three  heads  of  inquiry  : 
What  is  meant  by  justification  ? — what  by  faith  ? — and  what  is  the 
genuine  import  of  "justification  by  faith?"  Under  each  of  these  the 
reader  will  meet  with  much  instruction,  arising  from  a  very  luminous 
statement  of  truth,  accompanied  with  happy  illustrations.  The  charge 
against  the  doctrine  pleaded  for,  of  its  tending  to  licentiousness,  is 
very  successfully  combated  and  refuted. 

The  exhibition  of  the  leading  doctrines  of  Christianity  is  completed 
in  the  three  following  letters, — on  Providence,  the  Resurrection,  and 
the  Eternal  Existence  of  Man  after  Death.  We  perused  with  much 
satisfaction  the  author's  masterly  defence  of  a  particular  providen'Tc, 
the  denial  of  which  is,  to  all  practical  purposes,  equivalent  to  the 


314  REVIEW  OF 

denial  of  a  providence  altogether.  Trust  in  God  is  the  act  of  an  indi- 
vidual, as  all  the  exercises  of  piety  must  necessarily  be ;  so  that  if 
the  providence  of  God  embraces  not  the  concerns  of  individuals,  no 
rational  foundation  can  be  conceived  for  expecting  protection  from 
danger,  or  relief  under  distress,  in  answer  to  prayer.  The  denial  of 
a  particular  providence  is,  it  must  be  confessed,  the  best  possible  ex- 
pedient for  keeping  God  at  a  distance — and  on  that  account  so  vehe- 
mently insisted  on  by  certain  periodical  writers,  the  poison  of  whose 
impiety,  prepared,  it  is  generally  understood,  by  hallowed  hands,  and 
distributed  through  the  nation  in  a  popular  and  seducing  vehicle,  has 
met  with  a  powerful  antidote  and  rebuke  from  Dr.  Gregory,  who,  him- 
self a  layman,  will  be  honoured  as  the  champion  of  that  religion  which 
a  clergyman  has  insulted  and  betrayed.*  How  is  it  that  the  con- 
ductors of  the  publication  alluded  to  allot  to  this  clerical  associate  the 
province  of  libelling  religion  1  Is  it  that  its  alliance  with  nominal 
sanctity  gives  rank  impiety  a  new  zest,  at  the  same  time  that  its  total 
dereliction  of  principle  more  perfectly  incorporates  the  specific  design 
of  the  article  with  the  general  character  of  the  work  ? 

In  treating  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead,  the  author  has  happily 
availed  himself  of  the  striking  analogies  which  the  system  of  nature 
presents,  as  if  designed  on  purpose,  as  TerluUian  more  than  insinuates, 
to  excite  the  expectation  of  such  an  event.  Among  others  highly  de- 
serving attention,  we  shall  present  our  readers  with  the  following,  in 
the  words  of  Dr.  Gregory : — 

"  Nearly  allied  to  these  are  the  examples  of  peculiar  transforma- 
tions undergone  by  various  insects,  and  the  state  of  rest  and  insensi- 
bility which  precede  those  transformations :  such  as  the  chrysalis  or 
aurelia  state  of  butterflies,  moths,  and  silkworms.  The  myrmeleon 
formicaleo,  of  whose  larva,  and  its  extraordinary  history,  Reaumur  and 
Roesel  have  given  accurate  descriptions,  continues  in  its  insensible  or 
chrysalis  state  about  four  weeks.  The  libellula,  or  dragon-fly,  con- 
tinues still  longer  in  its  slate  of  inaction.  Naturalists  tell  us  that  the 
worm  repairs  to  the  margin  of  its  pond,  in  quest  of  a  convenient  place 
of  abode  during  its  insensible  state.  It  attaches  itself  to  a  plant,  or 
piece  of  dry  wood,  and  the  skin,  which  gradually  becomes  parched 
and  brittle,  at  last  splits  opposite  to  the  upper  part  of  the  thorax : 
through  this  aperture  the  insect,  now  become  winged,  quickly  pushes 
its  way  ;  and,  being  thus  extricated  from  confinement,  begins  to  expand 
its  wings,  to  flutter,  and  finally  to  launch  into  the  air  with  that  grace- 
fulness and  ease  which  are  peculiar  to  this  majestic  tribe.  Now,  who 
that  saw  for  the  first  time  the  little  pendant  cofiin  in  which  the  insect 
lay  entombed,  and  was  ignorant  of  the  transformation  of  which  we  are 
now  speaking,  would  ever  predict  that  in  a  few  weeks,  perhaps  in  a 
few  days  or  hours,  it  would  become  one  of  the  most  elegant  and  ac- 
tive of  winged  insects  ?  And  who  that  contemplates  with  the  mind  of  a 
philosopher  this  curious  transformation,  and  knows  that  two  years  be- 
fore the  insect  mounts  into  air,  even  while  it  is  living  in  water,  it  has 
the  rudiments  of  wings,  can  deny  that  the  body  of  a  dead  man  may 

♦  See  the  Article  on  Methodism,  in  the  Edinburgh  htview. 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  315 

at  some  future  period  be  again  invested  with  vigour  and  activity,  and 
soar  to  regions  for  which  some  latent  organization  may  have  pecuharly 
fitted  it  ?"— P.  225. 

In  descanting  on  the  change  that  will  be  efi'ected  by  the  resurrec- 
tion, when  we  shall  be  invested  with  a  glorified  body,  the  language  of 
the  author  rises  to  a  high  pitch  of  elevation,  and  exhibits  a  scene  which 
surpasses  the  brightest  visions  of  poetry  ;  while  the  exactness  of  the 
delineation  in  its  most  essential  lineaments  is  attested  by  the  "  true 
sayings  of  God."  The  science  with  which  the  mind  of  the  author  is 
so  richly  imbued  enables  him  to  mingle  a  refined  spirit  of  pliilosophy 
with  the  colours  of  imagination,  which,  without  diminishing  their  bright- 
ness, compels  the  assent  of  the  understanding,  while  it  captivates 
the  heart. 

In  the  letter  on  the  Eternal  Existence  after  Death,  the  author  strenu- 
ously opposes  the  sleep  of  the  soul,  and  urges  formidable,  and,  we 
apprehend,  irrefragable  arguments  for  interpreting  the  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture which  speak  of  the  everlasting  misery  of  the  impenitent,  in  their 
obvious  and  literal  sense :  nor  have  we  met  with  a  discussion  of  this 
awful  subject  so  calculated  to  carry  conviction  to  a  philosophical  mind, 
provided  it  be  disposed  to  bow  to  the  authority  of  revelation.  His 
confutation  of  the  reasoning  of  his  opponents,  founded  on  the  supposed 
ambiguity  of  the  terms  employed  to  denote  an  eternal  duration,  is 
particularly  masterly. 

On  the  third  branch  of  his  subject,  which  relates  to  the  Duties  of 
Christianity,  he  is  comparatively  brief, — not,  it  is  evident,  from  his 
undervaluing  their  importance,  but  partly,  we  conceive,  on  account  of 
the  length  of  his  former  discussions,  and  partly  because  in  this  part 
there  is  little  room  for  controversy.  He  has  contented  himself  with 
arranging  the  duties  of  Christianity  under  three  heads — those  which 
relate  to  God,  to  our  fellow-creatures,  and  to  ourselves  ;  and  with 
illustrating  and  enforcing  them  by  a  direct  appeal  to  the  language  of 
Scripture. 

Having  endeavoured  to  put  our  readers  in  possession  of  the  general 
plan  and  design  of  this  work,  we  shall  close  this  article  with  a  few 
general  observations  on  it. 

Dr.  Gregory,  throughout,  denominates  the  abetters  of  the  simple 
humanity  of  Christ,  Socinians,  instead  of  employing  their  favourite 
appellation  of  Unitarians.  We  rejoice  that  he  has  done  so,  and  hope  his 
example  will  be  generally  followed.  To  accede  to  the  appellation  of 
Unitarians  is  to  yield  up  the  very  point  in  debate ;  for,  ask  them  what 
they  mean  by  Unitarian,  and  they  will  feel  no  scruple  in  replying  that 
it  denotes  a  believer  in  one  God,  in  opposition  to  a  trilheist.  That  this 
is  not  asserted  at  random  is  evident,  as  well  from  many  other  facts,  as 
from  the  following  very  remarkable  one, — that  when  a  noted  academic 
was  some  years  since  expelled  from  the  university  of  Cambridge,  amid 
various  points  which  he  insisted  on  in  his  defence,  one  was  this,  that 
it  was  quite  absurd  to  censure  him  for  avowing  Unitarian  principles, 
since  he  never  heard  but  of  one  person  who  publicly  declared  himself 
not  a  Unitarian.     Now  what  did  he  mean  by  this  singular  assertion  ? 


316  REVIEW  OF 

Did  he  mean  to  say  that  he  never  heard  of  more  than  one  person  wlio 
pubhcly  affirmed  his  behef  in  a  plurality  of  persons  in  the  Godiiead'S 
This  is  impossible.  What  could  he  mean,  then,  but  that  he  never  knew 
but  of  one  person  who  affirmed  himself  not  to  be  a  believer  in  one  God  ? — 
which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  to  identify  the  term  Unitarian  with 
a  believer  in  one  God,  and  the  term  Trinitarian  with  a  believer  in  three. 
Let  the  intelligent  public  judge  whether  it  is  not  high  time  to  withhold 
from  these  men  an  appellation  which  assumes  the  question  at  issue, 
and  which  cannot  be  bestowed  without  being  converted  into  an  occa- 
sion of  insult  and  triumph  over  their  opponents.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  learning  and  moderation  of  Lardner,  and  the  fame  and  science 
of  Priestley,  combined  to  throw  a  transitory  splendour  over  their  system, 
and  to  procure  from  the  Christian  world  a  forbearance  and  complai- 
sance to  which  they  were  ill  entitled.  That  time  is  past.  Such  rational 
Christians  as  they  are  should  have  discernment  to  perceive  that  it 
is  not  with  them  as  in  months  past,  when  the  candle  of  their  leader 
shone  around  them  :  it  becomes  them  to  bow  their  spirit  to  the  humbled 
state  of  their  fortunes.  They  should  learn  at  last  to  know  themselves. 
The  world  is  perfectly  aware,  whether  they  perceive  it  or  not,  that 
Socinianism  is  now  a  headless  trunk,  bleeding  at  every  vein,  and  exhibit- 
ing no  other  symptom  of  life  but  its  frightful  convulsions. 

But  why  should  they  be  offended  at  being  styled  Socinians,  when  it 
is  undeniable  that  they  agree  with  Socinus  in  his  fundamental  position 
(the  simple  humanity  of  Christ),  which  is  all  the  agreement  that  sub- 
sists between  the  followers  of  Calvin  or  Arminius  and  those  eminent 
persons  ?  The  Calvinists  are  far  from  concurring  in  every  particular 
with  Calvin, — the  Arminians  with  Arminius  ;  yet  neither  of  them  have 
violently  disclaimed  these  appellations,  or  considered  them  as  terms  of 
reproach.  Why  are  the  Socinians  only  offended  at  being  denominated 
after  Socinus  ?  Is  it  because  they  differ  in  the  nature  of  Christ's  per- 
son from  that  celebrated  heresiarch  ?  This  they  will  not  pretend.  But 
they  differ  from  him  in  many  respects  !  In  what  respects  ?  Is  it  in 
those  respects  in  which  his  sentiments  gave  most  offence  to  the  Chris- 
tian world  ?  Is  it  that  they  have  receded  from  him  in  that  direction 
which  brings  them  nearer  to  the  generally  received  doctrine  of  the 
church  ?  Just  the  reverse.  In  the  esteem  of  all  but  themselves  they 
have  descended  many  degrees  lower  in  the  scale  of  error,  have  plunged 
many  fathoms  deeper  in  the  gulf  of  impiety :  yet,  with  an  assurance 
of  which  they  have  furnished  the  only  example,  they  affect  to  consider 
themselves  injured  by  being  styled  Socinians,  when  they  know  in  their 
own  consciences  that  they  differ  from  Socinus  only  in  pushing  the 
degradation  of  the  Saviour  to  a  much  greater  length — and  that  in  the 
views  of  the  Christian  world  their  religious  delinquencies  differ  from  his 
only  as  treason  differs  from  sedition,  or  sacrilege  from  theft.  The  appel- 
lation of  Socinian,  as  applied  to  them,  is  a  term  of  forbearance,  calcu- 
lated, if  they  would  suffer  it,  not  to  expose,  but  to  hide  a  part  of  their 
shame.  Let  them  assume  any  denomination  they  please,  provided  it 
be  such  as  will  fairly  represent  their  sentiments.  Let  them  be  styled 
antiscripturalists,  humanitarians,  semideists,  Priestleians,  or  Socinians. 


GREGORY'S  LETTERS.  317 

But  let  them  not  be  designated  by  a  term  which  is  merely  coveted  by 
them  for  the  purpose  of  chicane  and  imposture. 

Our  readers  will  perceive  that  the  system  which  Dr.  Gregory  strenu- 
ously abets  is  orthodoxy  ;  but  it  is  moderate  and  catholic ;  it  is  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  first  three  centuries  ;  it  is  that  system  which,  commu- 
nicated by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  pervaded  the  church  long  before 
the  confusion  of  modern  sects  arose,  or  even  tht  distinction  between 
Protestants  and  Catholics  was  heard  of:  it  is  the  orthodoxy  which  has 
nourished  the  root  of  piety  in  every  age,  warmed  the  breasts  of  saints 
and  martyrs,  and  will  continue  to  subsist  in  the  church  till  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  are  no  more. 

We  congratulate  the  public  on  the  accession  of  Dr.  G.  to  such  a 
cause  ;  and  sincerely  rejoice,  that  amid  his  multifarious  scientific 
pursuits  he  has  found  time  and  inclination  to  meditate  so  deeply,  and 
to  exhibit  so  successfully,  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus."  We  hope  his 
example  will  stimulate  other  men  of  science  and  genius  to  pursue  so 
noble  a  career.  We  will  venture  to  assure  them  that  upon  a  dying 
bed,  it  will  occasion  no  regret  to  reflect  upon  their  having  enrolled 
their  names  with  such  illustrious  laymen  as  Boyle,  Newton,  and  Locke 
in  the  defence  of  Christianity. 

In  a  beautiful  passage  of  Eui'ipides,  Medea  is  introduced,  express- 
ing her  surprise  that  amid  such  a  multitude  of  inventions  and  inqui- 
ries, the  art  of  persuasion,  the  mistress  of  human  volition,  should  alone 
have  been  neglected.  This  neglect  cannot  be  imputed  to  Dr.  Gregory. 
He  has  united  with  extraordiuary  attainments  in  the  severer  sciences, 
tlie  art  of  recommending  his  sentiments  with  the  most  impressive 
efliect ;  and  though  he  is  above  a  solicitude  respecting  the  minuter 
graces  of  finished  composition,  he  exhibits  in  an  eminent  degree  the 
most  important  ingredients  of  good  writing.  He  is  correct  and  lumi- 
nous, and  often  rises  to  the  tone  of  the  most  impassioned  feeling.  His 
language  is  eminently  easy,  flowing,  and  idiomatic.  The  abstractions 
of  science  have  not  in  him  exerted  the  influence  often  imputed  to  them, 
of  chilling  the  heart,  and  impairing  the  vigour  of  the  imagination. 
While  he  reasons  with  the  compreliension  and  depth  which  distinguish 
the  philosopher,  he  feels  with  ardour,  and  paints  with  force.  He  is 
often  inspired  and  transported  with  his  theme.  In  the  midst  of 
pursuits  which  are  not  always  found  to  have  a  propitious  effect  on  the 
religious  character  of  their  votaries,  he  has  found  the  means  of  pre- 
serving his  devotion  in  its  warmth,  his  faith  in  its  purity,  and  his 
sensibility  in  its  infantine  freshness  and  vigour. 

We  must  conclude  with  earnestly  recommending  this  work  to  the 
attentive  perusal  of  young  persons  whose  minds  have  been  cultivated 
by  science  and  letters ;  and  must  be  permitted  to  add,  that  we  are 
acquainted  with  no  book,  in  the  circle  of  English  literature,  which 
is  equally  calculated  to  give  persons  of  that  description  just  views 
of  the  evidence,  the  nature,  and  the  importance  of  revealed  religion. 


.       REVIEW 

OF 

BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY. 


Memoirs  of  the  late  Rev.  TheopMlus  LindseT/,  A.  M,,  including  a  brief 
Analysis  of  his  Works;  together  with  Anecdotes  and  Letters  of  emi- 
nent Persons,  his  Friends  and  Correspondents :  also,  a  general  View 
of  the  Progress  of  the  Unitarian  Doctrine  in  England  and  Ajuerica. 
^y  Thomas  Belsham,  Minister  of  the  Chapel  in  Essex-street.  8vo. 
Pp.  xxiv.  544.      1812. 

As  the  Life  of  Mr.  Lindsey  is  evidently  adopted  as  a  vehicle  for  the 
propagation  of  Socinian  sentiments,  we  shall  be  excused  for  being  more 
copious  in  our  remarks  upon  it  than  the  biography  of  a  man  of  such 
extreme  mediocrity  of  talents  could  otherwise  possibly  justify.  If  a 
zealous  attachment  to  any  system  of  opinions  can  be  supposed  to  be 
aided  by  its  association  with  personal  reputation,  we  cannot  wonder  at 
finding  Mr.  Lindsey's  fondness  for  socinianisra  so  ardent  and  so  perse- 
vering, inasmuch  as  the  annals  of  religion  scarcely  furnish  an  instance 
of  a  celebrity  acquired  so  entirely  by  the  adoption  of  a  particular  creed. 
Luther  and  Calvin  would  have  risen  to  distinction,  in  all  probability,  if 
the  Reformation  had  never  been  heard  of;  while  the  existence  of  such 
a  man  as  Mr.  Lindsey  would  not  have  been  known  beyond  the  precincts 
of  his  parish,  had  he  not,  under  a  peculiar  combination  of  circumstances, 
embraced  the  tenets  of  Socinus. 

His  reputation  is  altogether  accidental  and  factitious.  Though  the 
leading  events  of  his  life,  Avith  one  exception,  are  marked  by  no  striking 
peculiarities,  yet,  by  the  help  of  a  great  deal  of  adventitious  matter, 
Mr.  B.  has  contrived  to  make  it  the  groundwork  of  a  bulky  and  not 
imentertaining  volume — disfigured,  however,  throughout  by  that  languid 
and  inelegant  verbosity  which  characterizes  all  his  compositions.  It 
must  be  confessed  Mr.  Belsham  has  taken  care  in  this  work  to  exhibit 
himself  as  no  ascetic,  no  religious  enthusiast,  but  quite  a  man  of  the 
world ;  not  by  a  lively  delineation  of  its  manners  and  foibles,  still  less 
by  a  development  of  the  principles  by  which  mankind  are  actuated, 
but  by  such  a  profusion  of  compliments  bestowed  on  men  of  rank  and 
title,  and  so  perfect  a  prostration  before  secular  grandeur,  as  has  never 
been  paralleled,  we  suspect,  in  a  Christian  divine.     At  the  "  pomp  and 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  319 

circumstance"  of  human  life,  this  philosopher  appears  awed  and  planet- 
struck,  and  utterly  incapable  of  exercising  that  small  portion  of  dis- 
crimination with  which  nature  has  endowed  him.  Every  nobleman  or 
statesman  he  has  occasion  to  introduce  is  uniformly  ushered  in  with  a 
splendid  retinue  of  gorgeous  epithets,  in  which  there  are  as  little  taste 
and  variety  as  if  they  had  been  copied  verbatim  from  the  rolls  at  the 
herald's  office.  Orators  of  pre-eminent  powers,  together  with  virtuous 
and  enlightened  noblemen,  meet  us  at  every  turn ;  and  we  are  not  a 
little  surprised  at  finding  so  much  of  the  decoration  and  splendour  of 
this  mortal  scene  in  so  close  contact  with  the  historical  details  of  unita- 
rianism.  We  have  long  remarked  the  eagerness  of  Socinians  to  em- 
blazon their  system  by  associations  with  learning,- rank,  and  fashion; 
but  on  no  other  occasion  have  we  seen  this  humour  carried  so  far  as  in 
these  Memoirs. 

The  leading  events  of  Mr.  Lindsey's  life  are  the  following.  He  was 
born  June  20,  1723,  at  Middlewich  in  Cheshire,  where  his  father  was 
a  mercer  in  respectable  circumstances,  but  was  afterward  reduced  by 
misfortunes.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Spencer,  was 
distantly  related  to  the  Marlborough  family ;  and  previously  to  her 
marriage  lived  twenty  years  in  the  family  of  Frances,  Countess  of 
Huntingdon, — a  circumstance  which  led  to  considerable  intimacy,  that 
continued  for  some  years,  with  the  celebrated  Selina,  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  who  married  tlie  son  of  that  lady.  Under  the  patronage 
of  Lady  Betty  and  Lady  Ann  Hastings,  Mr.  Lindsey  was  educated, 
first  at  a  school  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Middlewich,  whence  he  was 
removed,  and  placed  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Barnard,  master 
of  the  free  grammar-school  in  that  town,  who  is  represented  as  a  gen- 
tleman of  distinguished  learning  and  piety.  His  vacations  were  usually 
spent  at  the  mansion  of  his  noble  patronesses,  in  the  vicinity  of  Leeds, 
during  the  life  of  Lady  Betty  Hastings ;  and,  after  her  decease,  at 
Ashby  Place,  near  Ashby  de  la  Zouch,  in  Leicestershire,  where  Lady 
Ann  then  fixed  her  residence.  In  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age.  May 
21,  1741,  he  was  admitted  a  student  at  St.  John's,  Cambridge,  where 
he  acquitted  himself  witli  credit  in  his  academical  exercises,  and  be- 
haved with  such  exemplary  propriety  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  Dr. 
Reynolds,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  thought  fit  to  intrust  him  with  the 
care  of  his  grandson,  a  j'outh  of  fifteen.  He  was  elected  fellow  of  St. 
John's  College  in  April,  1747.  Having  been  ordained  by  Bishop 
Gibson,  he  was,  at  the  recommendation  of  Lady  Ann  Hastings,  pre- 
sented to  a  chapel  in  Spital  Square  by  Sir  George  Wheeler.  In  a 
short  time  after  his  settlement  in  London,  the  Duke  of  Somerset 
received  him  into  his  house  in  the  capacity  of  domestic  chaplain.  He 
continued,  after  the  decease  of  that  nobleman,  to  reside  some  time  with 
the  duchess-dowager,  better  known  by  the  title  of  Countess  of  Hert- 
ford ;  and  at  her  request  he  accompanied  her  grandson,  the  present 
Duke  of  Northumberland,  then  about  nine  years  of  age  and  in  a  deli- 
cate state  of  health,  to  the  Continent,  where  he  continued  two  years ; 
at  the  expiration  of  which  time  he  brought  back  his  noble  pupil,  im- 
proved both  in  his  health  and  learning.     From  this  distinguished  per- 


320  REVIEW  OF 

sonage  he  continued  to  receive  attentions  and  favours  as  long  as  he 
lived.  Immediately  after  his  return  from  the  Continent,  he  was  pre- 
sented by  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  to  the  valuable  rectory  of  Kirkby 
Whiske,  in  tlie  north  riding  of  Yorkshire ;  at  first,  under  condition  to 
resign  it  Avhen  the  person  for  whom  it  was  intended  should  come  of 
age ;  but  this  young  man  dying  a  short  time  afterward,  it  was  given 
to  Mr.  Lindsey  unconditionally,  in  the  usual  form.  In  this  very  retired 
situation  Mr.  Lindsey  continued  about  three  years ;  and,  during  his 
residence  in  Yorkshire,  he  became  acquainted  with  the  celebrated 
Archdeacon  Blackburne,  at  Richmond, — a  circumstance  which  led  to 
important  consequences,  and  to  which  he  was  indebted,  under  Provi- 
dence, for  the  most  important  blessing  of  his  life. 

In  the  year  1756,  at  the  request  of  the  Huntingdon  family,  he  resigned 
the  living  of  Kirkby  Whiske  for  the  living  of  Piddletown,  in  Dorset- 
shire, which  was  in  the  gift  of  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon.  In  this  place 
he  lived  seven  years ;  and  in  1760  married  Miss  Elsworth,  the  step- 
daughter of  Archdeacon  Blackburne, — a  lady  whose  principles  were 
congenial  with  his  own,  and  who  is  represented  as  possessed  of  a 
superior  understanding  and  of  exalted  virtue.  It  was  during  his  resi- 
dence in  that  situation  that  he  first  began  to  entertain  scruples  con- 
cerning the  lawfulness  of  Trinitarian  worship,  and  of  his  continuing  to 
officiate  in  the  established  church.  It  appears  he  had,  from  his  early 
youth,  disapproved  of  some  things  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  Some 
years  afterward,  these  doubts  were  matured  into  a  full  conviction  that 
the  divinity  of  Christ  was  an  erroneous  tenet,  and  that  the  Father  was 
the  sole  object  of  worship  ;  in  consequence  of  which,  while  in  Dorset- 
shire, he  took  some  previous  steps  with  a  view  to  quitting  his  prefer- 
ment in  the  church.  In  the  year  1762,  upon  the  appointment  of  the 
late  Duke  of  Northumberland  to  be  lord-lieutenant  of  Ireland,  he  was 
strongly  urged  to  accept  the  place  of  chaplain  to  his  grace ;  which, 
from  the  preference  he  gave  to  a  retired  situation,  he  declined.  An 
opportunity  occurring  the  year  following  of  exchanging  his  living  for 
that  of  Catterick  in  Yorkshire,  he  made  the  exchange,  for  the  sake  of 
enjoying  the  society  of  Archdeacon  Blackburne  and  his  family,  who 
lived  in  that  neighbourhood.  On  this  occasion,  Mr.  Belsham  justly 
remarks,  "  It  may  appear  singular  that  Mr.  Lindsey  could  submit  to 
that  renewed  subscription  which  was  requisite  in  order  to  his  induction 
to  a  new  living. 

"  And  the  case,"  he  adds,  "  appears  the  more  extraordinary,  as  many 
clergymen  who,  in  consequence  of  a  revolution  in  their  opinions,  had 
become  dissatisfied  with  the  Articles,  would  never,  for  the  sake  of  ob- 
taining the  most  valuable  preferment,  subscribe  them  again,  though, 
while  they  were  permitted  to  remain  unmolested,  they  did  not  perceive 
it  to  be  their  duty  to  retire  from  the  church." — P.  17. 

The  extreme  want  of  candour  and  sincerity  evinced  by  such  conduct 
is  very  unsatisfactorily  apologized  for  by  Mr.  Lindsey,  and  is  very 
gently  reproved  by  Mr.  Belsham.  The  principal  plea  alleged  by  Mr. 
L.  in  defence  of  himself  is,  that  as  he  continued  to  officiate  in  the  forms 
of  the  liturgy,  his  renewed  subscription  gave  him  little  concern,  since 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  321 

he  consiJered  himself  every  time  he  used  the  liturgj'  as  virtually 
repeating  his  subscription.  At  length,  he  brought  himself,  he  says,  to 
consider  the  Trinitarian  forms  in  the  liturgy,  and  the  invocations  at  the 
entrance  of  the  litany,  as 

"  A  threefold  representation  of  the  one  God,  the  Father,  governing 
all  things  by  himself  and  by  his  Son  and  Spirit ;  and  as  a  threefold 
way  of  addressing  him  as  a  Creator,  and  original  benevolent  cause  of 
all  things,  as  Redeemer  of  mankind  by  his  Son,  and  their  Sanctitier  by 
his  Holy  Spirit."— P.  23. 

How  far  he  was  influenced  by  mercenary  considerations  in  retaining 
his  station  under  such  circumstances  it  is  impossible  to  say ;  but  that 
he  was  guilty  of  much  collusion  and  impious  prevarication  in  this  affair 
cannot  be  reasonably  doubted.  Nor  is  there  any  species  of  simulation 
or  dissimulation  in  religion  which  might  not  be  justified  on  pretences 
equally  plausible  :  and  when  we  recollect  that  Mr.  L.  persisted  in  that 
conduct  for  a  series  of  years,  we  shall  find  it  difficult  to  conceive  of 
him  as  that  prodigy  of  virtue  which  Mr,  Belsham  represents  him.  "  He 
must  be  a  severe  moralist,"  says  Mr.  B.,  "  whom  such  a  concession 
does  not  satisfy."  And  what  is  this  concession  that  is  to  stop  every 
mouth,  and  to  convert  censure  into  praise  1  We  will  give  it  in  Mr.  L.'a 
own  words — it  is  this  : 

"Not,"  says  he,  "that  I  now  justify  myself  therein;  yea,  rather  I 
condethn  myself.  But  as  I  have  humble  hope  of  the  Divine  forgive- 
ness, let  not  men  be  too  rigid  in  their  censures." — P.  24. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  a  confession  of  conduct  extremely 
criminal  in  terms  of  lighter  reprehension  ;  but,  agreeably  to  the  theory 
of  Mr.  B.,  the  merit  of  repentance  so  much  exceeds  the  moral  turpi- 
tude of  transgression,  that  the  faintest  indications  of  it  transport  him 
with  admiration.  For  our  parts,  were  we  not  aware  of  the  tendency 
of  Socinianism  to  produce  a  most  attenuated  conception  of  the  evil 
of  sin,  we  should  have  expected  to  find  such  insincerity  and  impiety 
deplored  in  the  strongest  language  of  penitential  sorrow.  As  we  wish, 
however,  to  do  ample  justice  to  the  real  virtues  of  Mr.  L.,  we  feel  a 
pleasure  in  quoting  the  following  account  of  the  manner  in  which  he 
conducted  himself  while  he  was  rector  of  Catterick. 

"  No  sooner  was  he  settled,"  says  his  biographer,  "  in  his  new 
situation,  than  he  applied  himself  with  great  assiduity,  in  his  extensive 
and  populous  parish,  to  perform  die  duties  of  a  parochial  minister. 
He  regularly  officiated  twice  on  the  Sunday  in  his  parish  church,  and 
in  tlie  interval  between  the  services  he  catechised  young  people.  He 
visited  the  sick,  he  relieved  the  poor,  he  established  and  supported 
charity  schools  for  the  children,  he  spent  considerable  sums  of  money 
in  feeding  the  hungry,  in  clothing  the  naked,  in  providing  medicines 
for  the  diseased,  and  in  purchasing  and  distributing  books  for  the 
instruction  of  the  ignorant.  In  his  domestic  arrangements,  the  greatest 
economy  was  observed,  that  he  and  his  excellent  lady  might  have  the 
greater  surplus  to  expend  in  liberality  and  charity  ;  for  it  was  a  rule 
with  him  to  lay  up  nothing  from  the  income  of  his  living." — P.  26. 

This  is  unquestionably  a  pleasing   picture  of  the  character  of  an 

Vol.  II.— X 


322  REVIEW  OF 

exemplary  Christian  pastor.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  considerable 
success  attended  his  labours.  On  this  head  he  contents  himself  with 
expressing  a  faint  hope  that  some  of  the  seed  he  had  sowed  might  not 
be  lost. 

In  this  situation  he  continued  ten  years,  till  a  dangerous  fit  of  sickness 
roused  his  conscience,  and  rendered  his  continuance  in  the  discharge 
of  his  ecclesiastical  functions  insupportable.  We  are  far  from  wishing 
to  depreciate  the  value  of  that  sacrifice  which  Mr.  Lindsey  tardily  and 
reluctantly  made  to  the  claims  of  conscience ;  but  we  cannot  conceal 
our  surprise,  that  a  measure  to  which  he  was  forced  in  order  to  quell 
the  apprehensions  he  most  justly  entertained  of  the  displeasure  of  the 
Almighty,  after  a  system  of  prevarication  persisted  in  for  upwards 
of  ten  years,  should  be  extolled  in  terms  which  can  only  be  applied 
with  propriety  to  instances  of  heroic  virtue.  To  prefer  the  surrender 
of  certain  worldly  advantages  to  a  perseverance  in  conduct  highly 
criminal  evinces  a  mind  not  utterly  insensible  to  the  force  of  moral 
obligation,  and  nothing  more.  Our  admiration  must  be  reserved  for  a 
higher  species  of  excellence  ;  for  an  adherence  to  the  side  of  delicacy 
and  honour,  where  many  plausibilities  might  be  urged  to  the  contrary  ; 
or  a  resolute  pursuit  of  the  path  of  virtue,  when  it  is  obstructed  by 
the  last  extremities  of  evil.  Mr.  Lindsey  renounced,  it  is  true,  a 
respectable  and  lucrative  situation  in  the  church,  rather  than  continue 
any  longer  in  the  practice  of  what  he  considered  as  idolatry.  But  he 
was  unencumbered  with  a  family ;  he  possessed  some  personal  property; 
and  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  several  great  and  noble  personages,  who 
were  never  likely  to  sufi'er  him  to  sink  into  absolute  poverty.  He 
merely  descended  to  the  level  where  many  of  the  best,  and  some  of  the 
greatest,  of  men  have  chosen  to  place  themselves,  and  where  his  friend 
Dr.  Priestley,  whose  talents  would  have  commanded  any  preferment  in 
the  church,  chose,  from  an  attachment  to  the  same  principles,  to  remain 
for  life.  We  approve  his  resignation  of  his  living  ;  but  we  confess  we 
are  more  disposed  to  wonder  that  he  could  reconcile  himself  to  continue 
in  his  situation  so  long,  than  that  he  should  feel  himself  compelled  to 
quit  it  at  last. 

This  event  took  place  in  the  year  1773 ;  after  which  he  came  to 
London,  and  a  plan  was  set  on  foot  for  opening  a  chapel  for  him  in 
the  metropolis,  where,  retaining  the  use  of  a  liturgy  modified  agreeably 
to  his  views,  he  might  promulgate  the  tenets  of  Socinus.  Many  persons, 
Mr.  B.  informs  us,  both  of  the  establishment  and  among  the  dissenters, 
aided  the  undertaking,  among  whom  are  particularly  enumerated  Dr. 
Priestley  and  Dr.  Price,  Samuel  Shore,  Esq.,  of  Norton  Hall,  in  York- 
shire, and  Robert  Newton,  Esq.  of  Norton  House,  in  the  same  village. 

These  gentlemen,  in  conjunction  with  others,  entered  into  a  sub- 
scription, to  indemnify  him  for  the  necessary  expenses  incurred  in 
procuring  and  fitting  up  his  chapel.  The  place  fixed  upon  for  this 
grand  experiment  was  a  room  in  Essex  House,  Essex-street,  which, 
having  before  been  used  as  an  auction-room,  was  capable,  at  a  mode- 
rate expense,  of  being  turned  into  a  convenient  place  of  worship. 
Here  Mr.  L.  introduced  his  improved  liturgy,  formed  very  much  upon 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  323 

the  plan  of  Dr.  Clarke's,  but  with  such  variations  as  corresponded  to 
the  difference  of  his  views  from  those  of  that  celebrated  divine.  From 
this  period,  the  life  of  Mr.  L.  proceeds  in  a  very  equable  and  uniform 
course,  with  little  worthy  of  remark  besides  the  various  publications 
to  which  the  system  he  had  adopted  gave  birth :  and  over  the  congre- 
gation formed  in  Essex-street  he  continued  to  preside  till  his  seventieth 
year,  when  he  thought  fit  to  retire  from  a  public  station  :  after  whicli 
he  lived  sixteen  years,  when  he  was  attacked  with  a  disease  wliich 
was  judged  to  be  a  pressure  of  the  brain,  and  expired  in  the  eighty- 
sixth  year  of  his  age.  Such  are  the  outlines  of  a  narrative  which 
Mr.  Belsham  has  contrived  to  extend  to  upwards  of  five  hundred 
octavo  pages.  It  is  by  no  means  our  intention  to  follow  the  biographer 
through  Ids  boundless  excursions,  or  to  criticise  every  remark  wliich 
appears  to  us  justly  obnoxious  to  censure.  We  shall  content  ourselves 
with  selecting  a  fnw  passages,  and  making  a  few  observations,  which 
may  serve  to  illustrate  the  genius  and  progress  of  Socinianism,  the 
promotion  of  which  evidently  appears  to  be  the  sole  object  of  the 
writer  of  these  Memoirs. 

The  secession  of  Mr.  Lindsey  from  the  established  church  produced 
much  less  impression  than  might  have  been  expected  ;  nor  does  it 
appear  that  his  example  was  followed  by  one  individual  among  the 
clergy,  until  Mr.  Disney,  his  brother-in-law,  after  the  lapse  of  some 
years,  adopted  the  same  measure,  and  afterward  became  his  colleague 
in  the  ministry.  The  establisiiment  of  a  Socinian  chapel  witli  a 
reformed  liturgy  in  the  metropolis  is  narrated  by  our  biographer  with 
the  utmost  pomp,  as  forming  a  distinguished  epoch  in  the  annals  of 
religion ;  and,  undoubtedly,  great  hopes  were  entertained  of  its  producing 
a  memorable  revolution  among  the  Episcopalians :  but  these  expecta- 
tions were  frustrated.  The  attendance,  composed  chiefly  of  persons 
of  opulence  (among  whom  the  Duke  of  Grafton  made  the  principal 
figure),  was  at  no  time  very  numerous  ;  and  no  similar  society  was 
formed  from  among  the  members  of  the  established  church  in  any 
part  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  utmost  that  the  efforts  of  Lindsey, 
Priestley,  and  others  effected  was  to  convert  the  teachers  of  Arianism 
among  the  dissenters  into  Socinians,  who  exerted  themselves  with 
tolerable  success  to  disseminate  their  principles  in  their  respective 
congregations  :  so  that  the  boasted  triumphs  of  Socinianism  consisted 
in  sinking  that  section  of  the  dissenting  body  who  had  already 
departed  from  the  faith  a  few  degrees  lower  in  the  gulf  of  error. 
From  these  very  Memoirs  under  consideration  we  derive  the  most 
convincing  evidence  that  the  tenets  of  Socinus,  with  respect  to  the 
nation  at  large,  have  lost  ground,  and  that  the  people  of  England  are 
much  less  favourably  disposed  to  them  than  formerly.  They  also 
present  us  a  very  full  and  particular  account  of  the  association  of  a 
part  of  the  clergy  at  the  Feathers  Tavern,  to  procure  relief  in  the 
matter  of  subscription ;  for  which  purpose,  agreeably  to  a  resolution 
of  the  general  body,  on  the  Gth  of  February,  1772,  a  petition  was 
presented  to  the  House  of  Commons.  The  number  of  the  petitioners 
amounted  to  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty,  among  whom  the  names 

X2 


324  REVIEW  OF 

ot  the  celebrated  Archdeacon  Blackburne,  and  Law,  bishop  of  Carlisle, 
were  the  most  distinguished.  Of  the  state  of  the  public  mind  in 
the  metropolis  we  have  a  striking  pi(;ture  in  a  letter  from  John  Lee, 
afterward  solicitor-general,  a  zealous  friend  of  the  discontented  clergy. 
"  It  will  surprise  you  who  live  in  the  country,"  says  he,  "  and  conse- 
quently have  not  been  informed  of  the  discoveries  of  the  metropolis, 
that  the  Christian  religion  is  not  thought  to  be  an  object  worthy  of  the 
least  regard  ;  and  that  it  is  not  only  the  most  prudent,  but  the  most 
virtuous  and  benevolent  thing  in  the  world,  to  divert  men's  minds  from 
such  frivolous  subjects  with  all  the  dexterity  that  can  be.  This  is  no 
exaggeration,  I  assure  you  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  be  the  opinion 
(and  their  conduct  will  show  it)  of  nine-tenths  of  both  houses  of  par- 
liament !"  Allowing  for  some  shght  exaggeration  arising  from  the 
chagrin  and  vexation  of  the  writer,  it  is  still  impossible  not  to  perceive, 
if  any  credit  is  due  to  his  statement,  that  the  parliament  were  not  in  a 
disposition  to  feel  any  conscientious  objections  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Articles,  and  that  if  they  opposed  such  a  measure,  that"  opposition 
originated  simply  from  the  fear  of  innovation,  common  to  politicians. 
The  manner  in  which  the  debate  was  conducted  when  the  afl'air  came 
actually  under  the  consideration  of  the  House  confirms  this  conclusion. 
There  was  not  one  member  who  expressed  his  belief  in  the  Articles : 
it  was  treated  entirely  as  a  political  question,  without  once  adverting 
to  its  intrinsic  merits  as  involving  a  religi(ms  controversy  ;  and  Mr. 
Hans  Stanley  opposed  the  bringing  up  of  the  petition,  as  it  tended  to 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  country,  which,  in  his  opinion,  ought  to  be 
the  subject  of  a  fortieth  Article,  which  would  be  well  worth  all  the 
thirty-nine.*  With  such  levity  and  contempt  was  the  national  creed 
treated  at  that  time.  Will  the  sturdiest  champion  of  Socinianism 
affirm  that  a  similar  discussion  in  the  House  of  Commons,  or  in  the 
upper  House,  would  be  conducted  in  a  similar  manner  at  present?  or 
that  there  would  not  be  one  member  who  would  contend  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  Articles  on  the  ground  of  their  intrinsic  excellence  and 
verity  ?  The  fact  is,  that  through  the  secularity  and  irreligion  of  the 
clergy,  evangelical  truth  was  nearly  efl'aced  from  the  minds  of  the 
members  of  the  establishment  in  the  higher  ranks,  and  that  an  indolent 
acquiescence  in  established  formularies  had  succeeded  to  the  ardour 
with  which  the  great  principles  of  religion  were  embraced  at  the 
Reformation.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  that  in  a  contest 
between  orthodoxy  and  heresy,  the  former  proved  triumphant  merely 
because  it  was  already  established,  and  had  the  plea  of  antiquity  and 
prescription  in  its  favour.  Since  that  period,  vital  religion  has  revived 
in  the  national  church  ;  the  flame  of  controversy  has  been  widely 
spread  ;  the  inconsistency  of  Socinianism  with  the  Scriptures,  together 
with  its  genuine  tendency  and  character,  has  been  fully  developed ; 
it  has  lost  the  attraction  of  novelty ;  it  has  revolted  the  minds  of  men 
by  its  impiety ;  and,  having  been  weighed  in  the  balance,  has  been 
found  wanting.  If  among  the  clergy  there  still  subsists  a  small  rem- 
nant who  are  attached  to  those  unscriptural  tenets,  they  are  content 

*  See  pages  54,  55,  ol"  these  Memoirs. 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  325 

with  being  connived  at,  and  nothing  could  now  urge  them  to  the  im- 
prudence of  presenting  their  claims  for  legal  security  to  the  Icfislature. 
We  hear  nothing  of  an  intention  to  renew  the  scenes  which  took,  place 
at  the  Feathers  Tavern  in  1772. 

We  consider  this  as  a  decisive  proof  that  Socinianism  has  lost  ground 
in  the  nation,  notwithstanding  its  prevalence  in  societies  of  a  certain 
description  among  the  dissenters.  Those  who  never  formally  renounced 
the  orthodox  doctrine  have,  in  consequence  of  recent  discussions,  become 
more  than  ever  attached  to  it :  while  that  class  of  dissenters  who  were 
already  moving  in  an  heretical  direction,  have  reposed  in  Socinianism 
as  their  natural  centre  of  gravity.  From  several  other  circumstances 
recorded  in  these  Memoirs,  the  same  inference  may  be  drawn  with 
respect  to  the  discredit  under  which  this  system  lies  at  present,  com- 
pared with  the  countenance  and  indulgence  with  which  it  was  received 
thirty  or  forty  years  back.  While  Mr.  Lindsey  was  deliberating  on 
the  propriety  of  quitting  his  living,  it  was  suggested  to  him  by  Dr. 
Priestley,  that  he  might  continue  to  officiate,  by  making  such  altera- 
tions in  the  public  offices  of  devotion  as  correspond  to  his  peculiar 
views.  "  Nor  was  there  any  ground  to  suspect,"  says  Mr.  B.,  "  that 
he  would  have  met  with  any  molestation  from  his  superiors."  Mr. 
Chambers,  who  held  the  living  of  Oundle,  in  Northamptonshire,  Mr. 
Disney,  for  many  years,  and  others,  did  so  without  being  called  to 
account  for  their  conduct.  We  should  be  sorry  to  express  ourselves 
with  an  improper  degree  of  confidence  ;  but  we  may  venture  to  express 
a  firm  persuasion,  that  such  a  silent  repeal  of  the  doctrine  of  the  church 
by  the  mere  authority  of  a  parochial  minister  would  not  now  be  per- 
milted  to  pass  unnoticed  or  uncensured  in  any  part  of  the  kingdom. 
The  dignitaries  of  the  church  are  alive  to  the  importance  of  the  dis- 
tinguishing truths  of  Christianity,  and  would  show  themselves  prompt 
and  eager,  as  appears  from  recent  instances,  to  discourage  the  open 
disavowal  of  them.  We  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  the  hope 
of  rendering  the  tenets  of  the  Polish  heresiarch  popular  and  prevalent 
throughout  this  nation  was  at  no  period  so  completely  extinguished  as 
at  the  present ;  and  from  a  certain  air  of  despondency  which  the 
memorialist  of  Lindsey  betrays  amid  all  his  gasconades,  we  are  con- 
vinced he  is  of  the  same  opinion.  The  disposition  on  all  occasions  to 
vaimt  of  their  success,  and  to  predict  with  great  confidence  the  speedy 
triumph  of  their  principles,  is  a  peculiar  feature  in  tlie  character  of 
modern  Socinians ;  and  the  absurd  and  exaggerated  statements  of 
matters  of  fact  into  which  this  propensity  betrays  them,  are  truly 
ludicrous.  All  other  sorts  of  enthusiasts  of  whom  we  have  either 
heard  or  read  are  in  this  respect  cold  and  phlegmatic  compared  with 
them.  In  various  extracts  from  the  letters  of  Mr.  Lindsey's  corres- 
pondents, and  of  others,  representations  are  made  of  numerous  and 
rapid  conversions  to  Socinianism,  which  Mr.  B.,  from  a  regard  to  truth 
and  decency,  fmds  it  necessary  to  correct  and  apologize  for  as  the 
effusion  of  well-intended  but  intemperate  zeal.  The  boast  of  success 
is  almost  invariably  the  precursor  of  a  statement  on  the  part  of  Mr.  B., 
in  which  it  is  either  repealed  or  qualified ;  and  it  is  but  doing  him 


326  REVIEW  OF 

justice  to  say,  that  his  judgment  and  experience  have  exempted  him 
from  those  illusions  and  deceptions  of  which  his  party  have  become 
the  easy  dupes.  We  had  been  confidently  informed,  for  instance,  that 
almost  all  the  people  of  Boston,  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts, 
were  becoming  Socinians,  and  that  the  ministers,  with  the  exception 
of  one  or  two,  had  already  declared  themselves ;  when  it  appears, 
from  the  unimpeachable  authority  of  Mr.  Wells,  himself  a  Socinian, 
and  an  inhabitant  of  that  city,  that  there  is  but  one  professedly  Unitarian 
chapel  throughout  New-England :  and  so  little  sanguine  is  he  with 
respect  to  the  spread  of  that  doctrine,  that  he  strongly  deprecates  its 
discussion,  from  a  conviction  that  it  will  issue  in  producing  among  the 
body  of  the  people  a  more  confirmed  attachment  to  orthodoxy.*  It  is 
also  worthy  of  remark,  that  these  extravagant  boasts  of  success  are 
not  accompanied  with  the  slightest  advertence  to  the  moral  or  spiritual 
effects  which  the  Socinian  doctrine  produces  on  the  character :  this  is 
a  consideration  which  rarely,  if  ever,  enters  into  the  mind  of  its  most 
zealous  abetters,  who  appear  to  be  perfectly  satisfied  if  they  can  but 
accomplish  a  change  of  sentiment,  however  inefficacious  to  all  prac- 
tical purposes.  Their  converts  are  merely  proselyted  to  an  opinion, 
without  pretending  to  be  converted  to  God ;  and  if  they  are  not  as 
much  injured  by  the  change  as  the  proselytes  made  by  the  Pharisees 
of  old,  it  must  be  ascribed  to  causes  totally  distinct  from  the  superior 
excellence  of  the  tenets  they  have  embraced.  They  have  been  taught 
to  discard  the  worship  of  Christ,  and  to  abjure  all  dependence  upon 
him  as  a  Saviour — an  admirable  preparation,  it  must  be  confessed,  for 
a  devout  and  holy  life.  Let  the  abetters  of  those  doctrines  produce, 
if  they  can,  a  single  instance  of  a  person  who,  in  consequence  of 
embracing  them,  was  reclaimed  from  a  vicious  to  a  virtuous  life,  from 
a  neglect  of  serious  pieiy  to  an  exemplary  discharge  of  its  obligations 
and  duties ;  and  their  success,  to  whatever  extent  it  has  been  realized, 
would  suggest  an  argument  in  their  favour  deserving  some  attention. 
But  who  is  ignorant  that  among  the  endless  fluctuations  of  fashions 
and  opinions  recorded  in  the  annals  of  religion,  the  most  absurd  and 
pernicious  systems  have  flourished  for  a  while  ;  and  that  Arianism,  for 
instance,  which  these  men  profess  to  abhor  almost  as  much  as  ortho- 
doxy, prevailed  to  such  a  degree  for  years  as  to  threaten  to  become 
the  prevalent  religion  of  Christendom  !t  Socinianism  can  boast  but 
few  converts  compared  with  infidelity;  in  England,  at  least,  they  have 
gone  hand  in  hand,  and  their  progress  has  been  simultaneous,  derived 
from  the  same  causes  and  productive  of  the  same  effects.  Shall  we 
therefore  affirm  that  infidelity  is  to  be  rejected  with  less  confidence 
because  it  possesses  in  reality  that  to  which  Socinianism  only  pretends? 
When  we  reflect  on  the  inert  and  torpid  character  of  Socinianism,  it  is 
surprising  any  serious  expectation  should  be  entertained  of  its  final 
triumph.  From  innumerable  passages  in  these  Memoirs  it  appears 
that  the  far  greater  part  of  those  who  have  embraced  it  in  the  established 

*  See  his  letter  in  the  Appendix  of  the  Memoirs. 

t  See  the  second  book  of  Sulpicius  Severus,  chap.  35,    ''Turn  haeresis  Arii  prorupit  totumqtie 
orbem  invecto  en-ore  turbaverat." 


X  BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  327 

church  have  been  content  to  retain  their  situation ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  who  joined  in  the  petition  for  relief  in 
the  matter  of  subscription,  Mr.  Lindsey  was  the  only  person  who  made 
any  sacrifice  of  emolument  to  principle.  We  find  both  Mr.  Lindsey 
and  Mr.  Belsham  incessantly  reproaching  Unitarians  with  timidity  in 
declining  the  avowal  of  their  sentiments,  and  the  former  remarking 
with  just  indignation  that  amid  the  multitudes  that  concurred  in  his 
views,  there  was  but  one  member  of  the  established  church  that 
afforded  him  any  pecuniary  aid  towards  defraying  the  necessary 
expenses  attendant  on  the  opening  of  his  chapel.  The  avowal  of 
Socinianism  among  dissenters  has  rarely  been  followed  by  worldly 
privations ;  and  in  the  Church  of  England,  where  such  consequences 
must  have  ensued,  it  has  not  been  made.  Except  in  the  instances  of 
Lindsey,  Jebb,  and  a  very  few  others,  the  converts  to  Socinianism  have 
stooped  to  the  meanest  prevarication  and  the  most  sacrilegious  hypoc- 
risy rather  than  sacrifice  their  worldly  emolument  and  honours.  Com- 
pare this  with  the  conduct  of  the  puritans  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
Second,  who,  though  the  points  at  issue  were  comparatively  trifling 
and  insignihcant,  chose  to  the  number  of  two  thousand  to  encounter 
every  species  of  obloquy  and  distress  rather  than  do  violence  to  their 
conscience,  and  learn  the  difTerence  between  the  heroism  inspired  by 
Cbristian  principle  and  the  base  and  pusillanimous  spirit  of  heresy. 
What  an  infatuation  to  expect  that  a  system  which  inspires  its  votaries 
with  no  better  sentiments  and  feelings  than  are  evinced  by  these 
decisive  facts  will  ever  become  the  prevailing  belief, — a  system  which, 
wliile  it  militates  against  every  page  of  revelation,  is  betrayed  by  the 
selfish  timidity  of  its  followers  !  The  system  of  Socinus  is  a  cold 
negation  :  the  whole  secret  of  it  consists  in  thinking  meanly  of  Christ; 
and  what  tendency  such  a  mode  of  thinking  can  have  to  inspire  eleva- 
tion or  ardour  it  is  not  easy  to  comprehend.  If  it  is  calculated  to 
relieve  the  conscience  of  a  weight  which  the  principles  of  orthodoxy 
render  it  difhcult  to  shake  off,  without  complying  with  the  condhions 
of  the  gospel,  infidelity  answers  the  same  purpose  still  better,  and 
possesses  a  still  higher  degree  of  simplicity, — meaning  by  that  term 
what  Socinians  generally  mean — the  total  absence  of  mystery. 

Great  part  of  these  Memoirs  are  occupied  in  giving  a  copious 
analysis  of  Mr.  L.'s  pul)lications,  whi(;h,  possessing  no  intrinsic  merit, 
nor  having  excited  more  than  a  temporary  interest,  it  would  be  trifling 
with  the  patience  of  our  readers  to  suppose  they  could  derive  either 
entertainment  or  instruction  from  seeing  them  abridged.  Of  Mr. 
Lindsey,  considered  as  a  writer,  it  is  sufhcient  to  observe,  that  the 
measure  of  intellect  he  displays  is  the  most  ordinary,  and  that  he  was 
not  possessed  of  the  power,  in  its  lowest  degree,  of  either  inventing 
what  was  rare  or  embellishing  what  was  common.  He  was  per- 
spicuous, because  he  contented  himself  on  all  occasions  with  the  most 
commonplace  thoughts;  he  was  simple,  because  he  aspired  to  nothing 
more  than  to  convey  his  meaning  in  intelligible  terms,  without  the  least 
conception  of  force,  elegance,  or  harmony.  Though  his  writings  are 
replete  with  professions  of  unbounded  liberality  and  candour,  it  is 


328  REVIEW  OF 

evident  from  his  treatment  of  Mr.  Robinson,  of  Cambridge,  that  he 
was  indulgent  only  towards  those  who  approached  nearer  to  infidelity 
than  himself.  Nothing  can  be  conceived  more  splenetic  and  acrimo- 
nious than  his  examination  of  that  ingenious  author's  Plea  for  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  who,  in  return  for  compliments  and  condescensions 
which,  however  unworthy  of  the  cause  he  was  defending,  were  suffi- 
cient to  soften  a  Cerberus,  met  with  nothing  but  rudeness  and  insolence. 
It  was  truly  amusin^  to  see  the  imbecility  of  a  Lindsey  assuming  the 
airs  of  a  Warburton.  Throughout  the  whole  of  that  publication  he 
affects  to  consider  Mr.  Robinson  as  a  mere  superficial  declaimer, 
although  his  friend  Archdeacon  Blackburne,  Mr.  B.  informs  us,  always 
spoke  of  the  Plea  as  a  most  able  and  unanswerable  performance.  So 
much  for  the  modesty  of  this  heretical  confessor! 

But  it  is  time  to  leave  Mr.  L.  to  that  oblivion  which  is  the  infallible 
destiny  of  him  and  of  his  works,  and  to  proceed  to  make  a  few  remarks 
on  the  narrative  and  the  miscellaneous  strictures  of  his  biographer.  In 
the  first  place,  we  congratulate  him  on  his  abatement  of  that  tone  of 
arrogance  which  so  strikingly  characterized  his  former  publications. 
Not  that  we  ever  expect  him  to  exhibit  himself  in  the  light  of  an 
amiable  or  unassuming  writer,  which  would  be  for  the  Ethiopian  to 
change  his  skin ;  but  it  is  with  pleasure  we  remark  less  insolence 
and  dogmatism  than  he  has  displayed  on  other  occasions.  He  writes 
like  a  person  who  is  conscious  he  is  supporting  a  sinking  cause ;  an 
air  of  despondency  may  be  detected  amid  his  eflbrts  to  appear  gay 
and  cheerful.  He  knows  perfectly  well  that  he  is  celebrating  the 
obsequies,  not  the  triumph,  of  Socinianism :  and  from  the  little  advan- 
tage it  has  derived  from  its  former  efforts,  his  vanity  will  not  prevent 
him  from  suspecting  that  he  is  giving  dust  to  dust,  and  ashes  to  ashes. 

In  this  as  in  all  his  former  publications,  he  evinces  a  total  ignorance 
of  human  nature,  together  with,  that  propensity  to  overrate  the  prac- 
tical effect  of  metaphysical  theories  which  almost  invariably  attaches  to 
metaphysicians  of  an  inferior  order.  He  who  invents  a  metaphysical 
system  which  possesses  the  least  claims  to  public  regard  must  have 
paid  a  profound  attention  to  the  actual  constitution  of  human  nature. 
He  must  have  explored  the  most  delicate  and  intricate  processes  of 
the  mind,  and  kept  a  vigilant  eye  on  the  various  phenomena  which  it 
presents.  He  is  necessarily  above  his  theory,  having  been  conducted 
to  it  by  an  independent  effort  of  thought.  He  has  not  adjusted  his 
observations  to  his  hypothesis,  but  his  hypothesis  to  his  observations. 
The  humble  disciple,  the  implicit  admirer  proceeds  too  often  in  a  directly 
opposite  manner.  All  he  knows  of  the  mental  constitution  in  its  more 
intricate  movements  he  derives  from  the  system  prepared  to  his  hand, 
which  he  adopts  with  all  its  crudities,  and  confidently  employs  as  the 
key  which  is  to  unlock  all  the  recesses  of  nature.  Having  been 
accustomed  to  contemplate  the  human  mind  with  a  constant  view  to 
the  technical  arrangements  to  which  he  has  devoted  himself,  he  esti- 
mates the  practical  importance  of  metaphysical  theories  by  what  has 
passed  in  his  own  mind.  We  are  fully  convinced  that  the  bulk  of 
mankind  are  very  little  influenced  by  metaphysical  theories  :  and  that 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  329 

even  in  minds  which  are  more  prone  to  speculation,  metaphysical 
dogmas  are  seldom  so  firmly  embraced,  or  so  deeply  realized,  as  to  be 
productive  of  important  practical  eflects.  The  advocate  of  necessity 
and  the  champion  of  liberty  will,  in  the  same  state  of  moral  proficiency, 
act  precisely  the  same  part  in  similar  circumstances.  Mr.  Belsham, 
however,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  enthusiasm  for  the  doctrine  of  philo- 
sophical necessity,  ascribes  without  hesitation  the  ruin  of  multitudes  of 
young  persons  to  iheir  embracing  the  opposite  tenet.  It  is  truly  surpri- 
sing thnt  he  who  was  so  quick-sighted  as  to  perceive  the  tendency  of 
the  notion  of  liberty  to  promote  immoral  conduct,  should  entertain  no 
suspicion  of  a  similar  tendency  in  tlie  doc-trine  of  God's  being  the  author 
of  sin,  which  Mr.  B.  repeatedly  asserts. 

"  The  true  solution  of  the  first  difficulty,"  says  Mr.  B.,  "  whether 
God  be  the  author  of  sin,  appears  to  be  this  :  that  God  is,  strictly 
speaking,  the  author  of  evil  ;  but  that,  in  the  first  place,  he  never 
ordains  or  permits  evil  but  with  a  view  to  the  production  of  a  greater 
good,  which  could  not  have  existed  without  it.  And,  secondly,  that 
though  God  is  the  author  of  evil  both  natural  and  moral,  he  is  not  the 
approver  of  evil ;  he  does  not  delight  in  it  for  its  own  sake ;  it  must 
be  the  object  of  his  aversion,  and  what  he  would  never  permit  or  endure, 
if  the  good  he  intends  could  have  been  accomplished  without  it.  With 
respect  to  the  justice  of  punishment,  the  best  and  only  philosophical 
solution  of  it  is,  that  under  the  divine  government  all  punishment  is 
remedial.  Moral  evil  is  the  disease,  punishment  is  the  process  of 
cure,  of  greater  or  less  intensity,  and  of  longer  or  shorter  duration,  in 
proportion  to  the  malignity  and  inveteracy  of  the  malady,  but  ultimately 
of  sovereign  efficacy,  under  the  divine  government,  to  operate  a  perfect 
cure ;  so  that  those  whose  vices  have  been  the  means  of  proving, 
purifying,  and  exalting  the  virtues  of  others,  shall  in  the  end  share 
■with  them  in  their  virtue  and  their  triumph,  and  the  impartial  justice 
and  infinite  benevolence  of  the  Divine  13eing  will  be  made  known, 
adored,  and  celebrated  through  the  whole  created  universe." — Pp. 
323,  324. 

The  malignant  tendency  of  such  representations  as  the  foregoing 
is  so  obvious,  that  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  point  it  out  to  our  readers. 
How  vain  are  all  precautions  against  sin,  if  in  all  cases  it  is  produced 
by  the  onnnpotent  power  of  the  Deity  !  and  what  motive  can  remain 
for  avoiding  it,  if  it  is  certain  of  being  ultimately  crowned  with  happi- 
ness and  glory!  The  distinction  between  producing  it  and  approving 
of  it  for  its  own  sake,  with  wliich  the  doctrine  is  attempted  to  be 
palliated,  is  perfectly  futile ;  for  this  is  ascribing  no  more  to  the  Deity 
than  must,  injustice,  be  ascribed  to  the  most  profligate  of  mankind,  who 
never  commit  sin  for  its  own  sake,  but  purely  with  a  view  to  certain 
advantages  with  which  it  is  connected  :  and  the  difl'erence  between  the 
two  cases  arises,  not  from  any  distinction  in  the  moral  character  of 
the  proceeding,  but  simply  from  the  superior  comprehension  of  view 
with  which  the  conduct  of  the  Deity  is  accompanied.  As  the  perpe- 
tration of  vice  is,  upon  this  system,  a  calamity,  not  a  crime,  it  is  but 
fitting  and  necessary  it  should  receive  a  compensation ;  and  for  this 


330  REVIEW  OF 

Mr.  B.  has  provided,  by  representing  the  ultimate  happiness  of  such 
as  have  been  the  means  of  purifying  the  virtue  of  others  by  their  vices, 
as  the  effect  of  the  impartial  justice  of  the  Deity.  Persons  of  this 
description  are,  it  seems,  a  species  of  benefactors ;  and  it  is  but  right 
they  should,  in  due  time,  be  rewarded.  They  are  the  scavengers  of 
the  universe ;  and,  having  done  a  great  deal  of  necessary  though 
dirty  work,  they  are  entitled  to  commiseration  at  present,  and  to 
proportionable  compensation  in  another  state  of  being.  How  admirably 
are  these  views  adapted  to  promote  a  horror  of  sin !  What  tender- 
ness of  conscience,  fear  of  offending,  deep  humility,  and  penitence 
may  we  expect  to  find  in  Mr.  Belsham  and  in  his  admirers !  Doubt- 
less, their  eyes  are  a  fountain  of  tears,  which,  like  Jeremiah,  they  are 
incessantly  pouring  out  for  those  vices  and  impieties  which  are  the 
sure  and  certain  pledges  of  endless  felicity  ! 

To  expect  Mr.  B.  to  write  a  bulky  volume  without  intermingling  a 
large  portion  of  infidelity  would  be  to  expect  grapes  of  thorns,  and 
figs  of  thistles.  In  tlie  work  under  consideration,  he  fully  maintains 
the  consistency  of  his  character.  He  more  than  insinuates  his  disbelief 
of  a  great,  if  not  the  greater,  part  of  the  Mosaic  history.  Mr.  Lindsey 
having  expressed  himself  in  terms  of  just  reprehension  with  respect  to 
the  conduct  of  those  who  reject  the  books  of  Moses,  Mr.  B.  takes  upon 
him  to  censure  the  severity  of  his  friend. 

"  But  surely,  if  the  venerable  writer,"  says  he,  "  had  reconsidered  the 
case  with  his  usual  calmness  and  impartiality,  he  would  have  seen 
that  a  person  may  be  a  very  firm  believer  in  the  divine  mission  and 
doctrine  of  Christ,  and  be  well  satisfied  with  the  general  evidence  of 
the  divine  legation  of  Moses,  while  he  at  the  same  time  may  entertain 
very  serious  doubts  whether  the  books  commonly  attributed  to  Moses 
were  really  written  throughout  by  him,  and  whether  either  the  narra- 
tive or  the  institute  exist  at  present  exactly  in  the  form  in  which  he 
delivered  them." — P.  408. 

But,  supposing  the  narrative  to  be  in  certain  points  false,  the  insti- 
tution misrepresented  and  disguised,  and  the  books  which  we  term  the 
Pentateuch  the  production  of  Some  unknown  author, — who  does  not 
see  the  impossibility  of  separating  the  truth  from  the  falsehood,  and  of 
attaching,  on  any  consistent  principles,  to  any  part  of  it  the  credit  due 
to  a  divine  communication  ?  The  spirit  of  infidelity  evinced  in  these 
passages  is  little  different  from  that  wliich  pervades  the  pages  of  Boling- 
broke  and  Voltaire.  But  such  is  the  genuine  progress  of  Socinianism  : 
it  begins  with  denying  some  of  the  clearest  propositions  in  the  New 
Testament,  in  order  to  which  its  claims  to  inspiration  must  be  weak- 
ened or  annulled  ;  whence  it  proceeds  to  dispute  the  authority  of  the 
Old,  till  the  whole  Bible  be  virtually  set  aside  as  the  umpire  of  contro- 
versy. Among  the  other  sublime  discoveries  to  which  Mr.  B.  has 
been  led  by  a  critical  investigation  of  the  wrhings  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, one  is,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  possesses  no  authority  what- 
ever ;  or,  to  use  a  term  of  his  own  invention,  no  external  authority. 
Speaking  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  he  says — 

"In  a  paper  dated  January  1,  1792,  the  duke  expresses  a  belief 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  33I 

that  the  exaltation  of  Christ  to  dominion  and  authority  was  the  conse- 
quence of  his  submission  to  those  sufl'erings  which  '  were  so  efficacious, 
perhaps  so  necessary,  to  his  own  glory,  and  to  the  future  happiness 
of  mankind.'  His  mind  seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  perplexed 
with  some  obscure  notion  of  the  unscriptural  doctrines  of  meritorious 
sufferings,  and  of  the  external  authority  of  Jesus  Christ ;  which, 
however,  he  regards  as  a  mystery,  which  '  it  will  probably  never  be 
given  to  man  in  the  present  state*  to  understand,  and  which  therefore 
'  must  consequently  be  ranked  among  those  articles  the  belief  of  which 
cannot  be  necessary  to  salvation.' " — P.  327. 

Though  the  apostles  have  affirmed  the  exaltation  of  the  Saviour  to 
the  government  of  the  universe  in  every  variety  of  form  which 
language  can  supply, — though  he  himself  declared  that  all  power  was 
given  to  him  in  heaven  and  in  earth, — his  possession  of  external 
authority  is  unblushingly  asserted  to  be  an  unscriptural  tenet.  We 
challenge  Mr.  B.  to  invent  terms  more  strongly  expressive  of  the  highest 
dominion  and  authority  than  those  which  the  inspired  writers  have 
employed  in  describing  the  exaltation  of  the  Saviour.  We  can  regard 
this  assertion  of  Mr.  Belsham's  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  specimen 
of  that  theological  audacity  which  forms  the  principal  feature  in  that 
gentleman's  character,  and  which  happily  can  have  no  other  effect 
than  to  inspire  a  complete  abhorrence  of  the  system  which  renders 
such  a  procedure  necessary.  We  cheerfully  accept,  however,  the 
concession  implied  in  these  daring  positions,  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
meritorious  sufferings  of  Christ  is  inseparably  connected  with  his 
exaltation  ;  and  as  the  latter  cannot,  without  the  utmost  indecency,  be 
denied,  the  former  follows  of  course.  We  can  annex  no  other 
meaning  to  the  epithet  external,  as  applied  to  authority,  than  what 
might  be  more  clearly  expressed  by  the  term  personal ;  or,  in  other 
words,  Mr.  B.'s  intention  is  to  assert  that  our  Lord  possesses  no 
authority  whatever  apart  from  the  credit  due  to  his  mission  and  to 
his  doctrine,  and  that  the  Christian  church  is  in  no  other  sense  governed 
by  Christ,  than  the  Jews  might  be  affirmed  to  be  governed  by  Moses 
after  his  decease.  It  must  be  obvious,  however,  to  every  one,  that  this 
is  not  to  explain,  but  boldly  and  unequivocally  to  contradict,  the 
writings  of  the  apostles  on  this  important  subject. 

We  shall  close  these  strictures  on  Mr.  lielsham  by  quoting  one 
passage  more,  which  illustrates  at  once  his  insufferable  arrogance 
and  his  servile  deference  to  authority. 

"  What  childish  simplicity  and  ignorance,"  says  he, "  does  it  betray 
in  some  to  i'eign  or  to  feel  alarmed  at  the  tendency  of  those  doctrines 
wliich  are  avowed  by  such  men  as  Lindsey,  Priestley,  Hartley,  and 
Jebb,  and  which  are  represented  by  them  as  lying  at  the  foundation  of 
all  right  vievvs  of  the  divine  government,  of  all  rational  piety  and  vir- 
tuous practice,  and  of  all  rational  and  substantial  consolation  !  And 
yet  such  persons  feel  no  alarm  at  the  vulgar  notion  of  philosophical 
liberty,  or  the  power  of  acting  differently  in  circumstances  precisely 
similar ;  a  notion  the  fond  persuasion  of  which  encourages  men  to 
venture  into  circumstances  of  moral  danger,  and  to  which  thousands 


332  REVIEW  OF 

of  the  young  and  inexperienced  especially  are  daily  falling  victims." 
—P.  394. 

The  arrogance,  folly,  and  absurdity  of  this  passage  are  scarcely  to 
be  paralleled,  even  in  the  writings  of  its  inimitable  author.  The  most 
celebrated  metaphysicians  and  reasoners,  in  every  age  and  in  every 
country — Malebranche,  Cudworth,  Clarke,  Butler,  ChillingWorlh,  Reid, 
and  innumerable  others,  who  have  avowed  the  strongest  apprehensions 
of  the  immoral  tendency  of  the  doctrine  of  fatalism,  or,  as  it  has 
been  styled,  of  philosophical  necessity,  are  consigned  by  a  writer  who 
has  not  capacity  sufficient  to  appreciate  their  powers,  much  less  to 
rival  their  productions,  to  the  reproach  of  childish  simplicity  and 
ignorance ;  and  this  for  no  other  reason  than  their  presuming  to  differ 
in  opinion  from  Lindsey,  Priestley,  Hardey,  and  Jebb  !  What  is  this 
but  to  enjoin  implicit  faith  1  and  why  might  not  a  Roman  Catholic, 
with  equal  propriety,  accuse  of  childish  simplicity  and  ignorance 
those  who  should  suspect  the  pernicious  tendency  of  sentiments  held 
by  Pascal,  Fenelon,  and  Bossuet  ?  We  must  be  permitted  to  remind 
Mr.  B.  that  we  hold  his  pretensions  to  a  liberal  and  independent  turn 
of  thought  extremely  cheap ;  that,  possessing  nothing  original  even 
in  his  opinions,  to  say  nothing  of  his  genius,  his  most  vigorous  efforts 
have  terminated  in  his  becoming  a  mere  train-bearer,  in  a  very  insignifi- 
cant procession. 

Having  already  detained  our  readers  longer  on  this  article  than  we 
ought,  we  should  now  put  a  period  to  our  remarks,  but  that  there  is 
one  particular  connected  with  the  history  of  Mr.  Lindsey  which  we 
conceive  has  been  too  often  set  in  such  a  light  as  is  calculated  to  produce 
erroneous  impressions.  We  refer  to  the  resignation  of  his  living  in 
deference  to  his  religious  scruples.  He  is  on  this  account  everywhere 
designated  by  Mr.  Belsham  by  the  tide  of"  the  venerable  confessor;" 
and  what  is  more  to  be  wondered  at,  the  late  excellent  Job  Orton,  in  a 
letter  to  his  friend  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Palmer,  of  Hackney,  speaks  of 
him  in  the  following  terms  : 

"'Were  I  to  publish  an  accoimt  of  silenced  and  ejected  ministers, 
I  should  be  strongly  tempted  to  insert  Mr.  Lindsey  in  the  list  he  men- 
tions in  his  Apology  with  so  much  veneration.  He  certainly  deserves 
as  much  respect  and  honour  as  any  of  them  for  the  part  he  has  acted. 
Perhaps  few  of  them  exceeded  him  in  learning  and  piety.  I  venerate 
him  as  I  would  any  of  your  confessors.  As  to  his  particular  sentiments, 
they  are  nothing  to  me.  An  honest  pious  man,  who  makes  such  a 
sacrifice  to  truth  and  conscience  as  he  has  done,  is  a  glorious  charac- 
ter, and  deserves  the  respect,  esteem,  and  veneration  of  every  true 
Christian.' " 

We  have  no  scruple  in  asserting  that  this  unqualified  encomium  is 
repugnant  to  reason,  to  Scripture,  and  to  the  sentiments  of  the  best  and 
purest  ages  of  the  Christian  church.  To  pass  over  the  absurdity  of 
denominating  Mr.  L.  a  silenced  and  ejected  minister,  merely  on  ac- 
count of  his  voluntary  withdrawment  from  a  community  whose  dis- 
tinguishing tenets  he  had  abandoned,  we  are  far  from  conceiving  that 
the  merit  attached  to  his  conduct  on  this  occasion  was  of  such  an 


BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY.  333 

order  as  to  entitle  him  for  a  moment  to  rank  with  confessors  and 
martyrs.  To  the  praise  of  manly  integrity  for  quitting  a  situation  he 
could  no  longer  conscientiously  retain,  we  are  ready  to  acknowledge 
Mr.  L.  fully  eniided.  We  are  cordially  disposed  to  admire  integrity 
wherever  we  perceive  it ;  and  we  admire  it  the  more  in  the  present 
instance,  because  such  examples  of  it  among  beneficed  ecclesiastics 
have  been  rare.  But  we  cannot  permit  ourselves  to  place  sacrifices 
to  error  on  the  same  footing  as  sacrifices  to  trudi,  without  annihilating 
their  distinction.  If  revealed  truth  possess  any  thing  of  sanctity  and 
importance,  the  profession  of  it  must  be  more  meritorious  than  the 
profession  of  its  opposite;  and,  by  consequence,  sacrifices  made  to 
that  profession  must  be  more  estimable.  He  who  suffers  in  the  cause 
of  truth  is  entitled  to  admiration  ;  he  who  suffers  in  the  defence  of 
error  and  delusion  to  our  commiseration :  which  are  unquestionably 
very  different  sentiments.  If  truth  is  calculated  to  elevate  and  sanctify 
the  character,  he  who  cheerfully  sacrifices  his  worldly  emolument  to 
its  pursuit  must  be  supposed  to  have  participated  in  no  common  degree 
of  its  salutary  operation.  He  who  suffers  equal  privations  in  the  pro- 
pagation of  error  evinces,  it  is  confessed,  his  possession  of  moral 
honesty ;  but  unless  persuasion  could  convert  error  into  truth,  it  is 
impossible  it  should  impart  to  error  tlie  effects  of  truth.  Previous  to 
the  profession  of  any  tenets  whatever,  there  lies  an  obligation  on  all 
to  whom  the  light  of  the  gospel  extends,  to  believe  the  truth.  We  are 
bound  to  confess  Christ  before  men,  only  because  we  are  bound  to 
believe  on  him.  But  if,  instead  of  believing  on  him,  we  deny  him  in 
his  essential  characters,  which  is  the  case  with  Socinians,  the  sincerity 
of  diat  denial  will  indeed  rescue  us  from  the  guilt  of  prevarication, 
but  not  from  that  of  unbelief  It  is  possible,  at  least,  since  some 
sort  of  faith  in  Christ  is  positively  asserted  to  be  essential  to  salvation, 
that  the  tenets  of  the  Socinians  may  be  such  as  to  exclude  that  faith  : 
that  it  does  exclude  it  no  orthodox  man  can  consistently  deny  ;  and 
how  absurd  it  were  to  suppose  a  man  should  be  entitled  to  the  reward 
of  a  Christian  confessor  merely  for  denying,  bona  fide.,  the  doctrine 
wiiich  is  essential  to  salvation  !  The  sincerity  which  accompanies 
his  profession  entitles  him  to  the  reward  of  a  confessor :  the  error  of 
the  doctrine  which  he  professes  exposes  him  at  the  same  time  to  the 
sentence  of  condemnation  as  an  unbeliever  !  If  we  lose  sight  of 
Socinianism  for  a  moment,  and  suppose  an  unbeliever  in  Christianity, 
in  toto,  to  suffer  for  the  voluntary  and  sincere  promulgation  of  his 
tenets,  we  would  ask  Mr.  Orton  in  what  rank  he  would  be  inclined  to 
place  his  infidel  confessor.  Is  hn  entitled  to  rank  with  any  of  the  con- 
fessors ?  If  he  is,  our  Saviour's  terms  of  salvation  are  essentially 
altered  ;  and  though  he  pronounces  an  anathema  on  him  who  shall 
deny  him  before  men,  the  sturdy  and  unshaken  denial  of  him  in  the 
face  of  worldly  discouragement  would  answer,  it  seems,  as  well  as  a 
similar  confession.  Men  are  left  at  their  liberty  in  this  respect ;  and 
they  are  equally  secure  of  eternal  happiness,  whetlier  they  deny  or 
whether  they  confess  the  Saviour,  providing  they  do  it  firmly  and 
sincerely.     If  these  consequences  appear  shocking,  and  he  be  forced 


334        REVIEW  OF  BELSHAM'S  MEMOIRS  OF  LINDSEY. 

to  assert  the  negative,  then  it  is  admitted  that  the  truth  of  the  doctrine 
confessed  enters  essentially  into  the  inquiry,  whether  he  who  suffers 
for  his  opinions  is  to  be,  ipso  facto,  classed  with  Christian  confessors. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  we  are  not  denying  that  he  who  hazards 
his  worldly  interest  rather  than  conceal  or  dissemble  his  tenets,  how 
false  or  dangerous  soever  they  may  be,  is  an  honest  man,  and,  quoad 
hoc,  acts  a  virtuous  part, — but  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  same  kind  of 
approbation  with  the  champion  of  truth.  That  the  view  we  have 
taken  of  the  subject  is  consonant  to  the  Scriptures  will  not  be  doubted 
by  those  who  recollect  that  St.  John  rests  his  attachment  to  Gains  and 
to  the  elect  Lady,  on  the  truth  which  dwelt  in  them ;  that  he  professed 
no  Christian  attachment  but  for  the  truth's  sake ;  and  that  he  forbade 
Christians  to  exercise  hospitality,  or  to  show  the  least  indication  of 
friendship,  to  those  who  taught  any  other  doctrine  than  that  which  he 
and  his  fellow-apostles  had  taught.  The  source  of  the  confusion  and  ab- 
surdity which  necessarily  attach  to  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Orton  and  others, 
here  expressed  on  this  subject,  consists  in  their  confounding  together 
moral  sincerity  and  Christian  piety.  We  are  perfectly  willing  to  admit 
that  the  latter  cannot  subsist  without  the  former ;  but  we  are  equally 
certain  that  the  former  is  by  no  means  so  comprehensive  as  necessarily 
to  include  the  latter.  We  should  have  imagined  it  unnecessary  to 
enter  into  an  elaborate  defence  of  so  plain  a  position  as  this,  that  it  is 
one  thing  to  be  what  the  world  styles  an  honest  man,  and  another  to 
be  a  Christian — a  distinction,  obvious  as  it  is  sufficient  to  solve  the 
whole  mystery,  and  to  account  for  the  conduct  of  Mr.  L.,  without 
adopting  the  unmeaning  jargon  of  his  biographer,  who  styles  him,  in 
innumerable  places,  the  venerable  confessor.  How  repugnant  the  lan- 
guage we  have  been  endeavouring  to  expose  is  to  that  which  was 
held  in  the  purest  and  best  ages  of  the  church,  must  be  obvious  to  all 
who  are  competently  acquainted  with  ecclesiastical  history.  The 
Marcionites,  we  are  informed  by  Eusebius,  boasted  of  their  having 
furnished  a  multitude  of  martyrs ;  but  they  were  not  the  less  on  that 
account  considered  as  deniers  of  Christ.  Hence,  when  orthodox 
Christians  happened  occasionally  to  meet  at  the  places  of  martyrdom 
Avith  Montanists  and  Manichaeans,  they  refused  to  hold  the  least  com- 
munion with  them,  lest  they  should  be  supposed  to  consent  to  their 
errors.*  In  a  word,  the  nature  of  the  doctrine  professed  must  be  taken 
into  consideration  before  we  can  determine  that  profession  to  be  a 
Christian  profession;  nor  is  martyrdom  entitled  to  the  high  veneration 
justly  bestowed  on  acts  of  heroic  piet)^  on  any  other  ground  than  its 
being,  what  the  term  imports,  an  attestation  of  the  truth.  It  is  the 
saint  which  makes  the  martyr,  not  the  martyr  the  saint. 

*  Euseb.  lib.  5,  c.  14. 


REVIEW 

OF 

BIRT   ON  POPERY. 


A  Summary  of  the  Principles  and  History  of  Popery,  in  Five  Lectures, 
on  the  Pretensions  and  Abuses  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  By  John 
BiRT.     8vo.  pp.  176.     1823. 

At  a  time  when  popery  is  making  rapid  strides,  and  Protestants  in 
general  have  lost  the  zeal  which  once  animated  them,  we  consider  the 
publication  we  have  just  announced  as  peculiarly  seasonable.  What 
may  be  the  ultimate  effect  of  the  efforts  made  by  the  adherents  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  to  propagate  its  tenets,  aided  by  the  apathy  of  the 
opposite  party,  it  is  not  for  us  to  conjecture.  Certain  it  is,  there  never 
was  a  period  when  the  members  of  the  papal  community  were  so  active 
and  enterprising,  or  Protestants  so  torpid  and  indifferent.  Innumerable 
symptoms  appear  of  a  prevailing  disposition  to  contemplate  the  doctrines 
of  popery  with  less  disgust,  and  to  witness  their  progress  with  less 
alarm,  than  has  ever  been  known  since  the  Reformation.  All  the  zeal 
and  activity  are  on  one  side ;  and  while  every  absurdity  is  retained, 
and  every  pretension  defended,  which  formerly  drew  upon  popery  the 
indignation  and  abhorrence  of  all  enlightened  Christians,  we  should  be 
ready  to  conclude  from  the  altered  state  of  public  feeling,  that  a  system 
once  so  obnoxious  had  undergone  some  momentous  revolution.  We 
seem  on  this  occasion  to  have  interpreted  in  its  most  literal  sense  the 
injunction  of  "  hoping  all  things  and  believing  all  things."  We  persist 
in  maintaining  that  the  adherents  to  popery  are  materially  changed,  in 
contradiction  to  their  express  disavowal ;  and  while  they  make  a  boast 
of  the  infallibility  of  their  creed,  and  the  unalterable  nature  of  their 
religion,  we  persist  in  the  belief  of  its  having  experienced  we  know  not 
what  melioration  and  improvement.  In  most  instances,  when  men  are 
deceived,  it  is  the  effect  of  art  and  contrivance  on  the  part  of  thosn 
who  delude  them  :  in  this,  the  deception  originates  with  ourselves  ;  and 
instead  of  bearing  false  witness  against  our  neighbour,  such  is  the 
excess  of  our  candour,  that  we  refuse  to  credit  the  unfavourable  testi- 
mony which  he  bears  of  himself. 

There  is,  in  the  mean  time,  nothing  reciprocal  in  this  strange  method 
of  proceeding :  we  pipe  to  them,  but  they  will  not  dance.     Our  con- 


336  REVIEW  OF 

cessions,  instead  of  softening  and  mollifying,  seem  to  have  no  other 
effect  upon  them  than  to  elate  their  pride  and  augment  their  arrogance 

An  equal  change  in  the  state  of  feeling  towards  an  object  which  has 
itself  undergone  no  alteration  whatever,  and  where  the  party  by  which 
it  is  displayed  profess  to  adhere  to  their  ancient  tenets,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  specify.  To  inquire  into  the  causes  of  this  singular  phe- 
nomenon would  lead  to  discussion  foreign  to  our  present  purpose. 
Let  it  suffice  to  remark,  that  it  may  partly  be  ascribed  to  the  length 
of  time  which  has  elapsed  since  we  have  had  actual  experience 
of  the  enormous  cruelties  of  the  papal  system,  and  to  the  fancied 
security  we  possess  against  their  recurrence ; — partly  to  the  agita- 
tion of  a  great  political  question,  which  seems  to  have  had  the 
effect  of  identifying  the  cause  of  popery  with  that  of  Protestant  dis- 
senters. The  impression  of  the  past  has  in  a  manner  spent  itself; 
and  in  many  its  place  is  occupied  by  an  eagerness  to  grasp  at  present 
advantages,  and  to  lay  hold  of  every  expedient  for  shaking  off  the 
restraints  which  a  narrow  and  timid  policy  has  imposed.  The  influence 
of  these  circumstances  has  been  much  aided  by  that  indifference  to 
religious  truth  which  too  often  shelters  itself  under  the  mask  of  can- 
dour :  and  to  such  an  extent  has  this  humour  been  carried,  that  distin- 
guished leaders  in  parliament  have  not  scrupled  to  represent  the 
controversy  between  the  papists  and  the  Protestants  as  turning  on 
obscure  and  unintelligible  points  of  doctrine,  scarcely  worth  the  atten- 
tion of  enlightened  minds ;  while  a  beneficed  clergyman  of  some  dis- 
tinction has  treated  the  whole  subject  as  of  no  more  importance  than  the 
idle  disputes  agitated  by  the  schoolmen.  It  was  but  a  few  years  since 
that  a  celebrated  nobleman,  in  the  House  of  Peers,  vehemently  con- 
demned the  oath  of  abjuration  for  applying  the  term  supcrstiticus  to 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  In  exactly  the  same  spirit  the 
appellation  of  papist  is  exchanged  for  Catholic, — a  concession  which 
the  adherents  of  the  Church  of  Rome  well  know  how  to  improve,  as 
amounting  to  little  short  of  a  formal  surrender  of  the  point  at  issue. 
For  if  the  papists  are  really  entitled  to  the  name  of  Catholics,  Protest- 
ants of  every  denomination  are  involved  in  the  guilt  of  schism. 

This  revolution  in  the  feelings  of  a  great  portion  of  the  public  has 
probably  been  not  a  little  promoted  by  another  cause.  The  present 
times  are  eminently  distinguished  by  the  eflbrts  employed  for  the 
extension  of  vital  religion  :  each  denomination  of  Christians  has  taken 
its  station,  and  contributed  its  part  towards  the  diffusion  of  evangelical 
sentiments.  The  consequence  has  been,  that  the  professors  of  serious 
piety  are  multiplied,  and  form  at  present  a  very  conspicuous  branch  of 
the  community.  The  space  wliich  they  occupy  in  the  minds  of  the 
public  is  not  merely  proportioned  to  their  numerical  importance,  still 
less  to  their  rank  in  society :  it  is  in  a  great  measure  derived  from  the 
publicity  of  their  proceedings,  and  the  numerous  associations  for  the 
promotion  of  pious  and  benevolent  objects  which  they  have  originated 
and  supported.  By  these  means,  their  discriminating  doctrines,  essen- 
tial to  vital  piety,  have  become  better  known,  and  more  fully  discussed 
than  heretofore.     However  beneficial  as  to  its  general  effects  such  a 


BIRT  ON  POPERY.  337 

State  of  things  may  have  been,  one  consequence  which  might  be  ex- 
pected has  been  the  result.  The  opposition  of  the  enemies  of  religion 
has  become  more  virulent,  their  hatred  more  heated  and  inflamed,  and 
they  have  turned  with  no  small  complacency  to  the  contemplation  of 
a  system  which  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the  object  of  their  detesta- 
tion. Popery,  in  the  ordinary  state  of  its  profession,  combines  the 
"  form  of  godliness"  with  a  total  denial  of  its  power.  A  heap  of  un- 
meaning ceremonies,  adapted  to  fascinate  the  imagination  and  engage 
the  senses, — implicit  faith  in  human  authority,  combined  with  an  utter 
neglect  of  Divine  teaching, — ignorance  the  most  profound,  joined  to 
dogmatism  the  most  presumptuous, — a  vigilant  exclusion  of  biblical 
knowledge,  together  with  a  total  extinction  of  free  inquiry, — present 
the  spectacle  of  religion  lying  in  state,  surrounded  with  the  silent  pomp 
of  death.  The  very  absurdities  of  such  a  religion  render  it  less  unac- 
ceptable to  men  whose  decided  hostility  to  truth  inclines  them  to  view 
with  complacency  whatever  obscures  its  beauty  or  impedes  its  opera- 
tion. Of  all  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  which  have  prevailed  to 
any  considerable  extent,  popery  presents  the  most  numerous  points  of 
contrast  to  the  simple  doctrines  of  the  gospel ;  and  just  in  proportion 
as  it  gains  ground  tiie  religion  of  Christ  must  decline. 

On  these  accounts,  though  we  are  far  from  supposing  that  popery, 
were  it  triumphant,  would  allow  toleration  to  any  denomination  of 
Protestants,  we  have  the  utmost  confidence  that  the  professors  of  evan- 
gelical piety  would  be  its  first  victims.  The  party  most  opposed  to 
them  look  to  papists  as  their  natural  ally,  on  whose  assistance,  in  the 
suppression  of  what  they  are  pleased  to  denominate  fanaticism  and 
enthusiasm,  they  may  always  depend :  they  may,  therefore,  without 
presumption,  promise  themselves  the  distinction  conferred  on  Ulysses, 
— that  of  being  last  devoured. 

Whether  popery  will  ever  be  permitted,  in  the  inscrutable  counsels 
of  Heaven,  again  to  darken  and  overspread  the  land,  is  an  inquiry  in 
which  it  is  foreign  from  our  province  to  engage.  It  is  certain  that  the 
members  of  the  Romish  community  are  at  this  moment  on  the  tip-toe 
of  expectation,  indulging  the  most  sanguine  hopes,  suggested  by  the 
temper  of  the  times,  of  soon  recovering  all  that  they  have  lost,  and  of 
seeing  the  pretended  rights  of  their  church  restored  in  their  full  splen- 
dour. If  any  thing  can  realize  such  an  expectation,  it  is  undoubtedly 
the  torpor  and  indifference  of  Protestants,  combined  with  the  incredible 
zeal  and  activity  of  papists ;  and  universal  observation  shows  what 
these  are  capable  of  effecting, — how  often  they  compensate  the  disad- 
vantages arising  from  paucity  of  immber,  as  well  as  almost  every  kind 
of  inequality. 

From  a  settled  persuasion  that  popery  still  is  what  it  always  was — 
a  detestable  system  of  impiety,  cruelty,  and  imposture,  fabricated  by 
the  father  of  lies — we  feel  thankful  at  witnessing  any  judicious  attempt 
to  expose  its  enormities  and  retard  its  progress.  The  Lectures  pub- 
hshed  some  years  since  by  Mr.  Fletcher  are  well  adapted  for  this 
purpose,  and  entitle  their  excellent  author  to  the  esteem  and  gratitude 
of  the  public.     The  Protestant,  a  series  of  periodical  papers,  composed 

Vol.  II.— Y 


338  REVIEW  OF 

by  Mr.  M'Gavin,  of  Glasgow,  contains  the  fullest  delineation  of  the 
popish  system,  and  the  most  powerful  confutation  of  its  principles,  in  a 
popular  style,  of  any  work  we  have  seen.  Whoever  wishes  to  see 
popery  drawn  to  the  life,  in  its  hideous  wickedness  and  deformity,  will 
find  abundant  satisfaction  in  the  pages  of  that  writer. 

The  author  before  us  has  been  studious  of  conciseness,  and  has 
contented  himself  with  exhibiting  a  brief,  but  a  very  correct  and  im- 
pressive, outline  of  that  copious  subject.  As  these  lectures  were 
delivered  at  Manchester,  it  is  probable  the  author's  attention  was  more 
immediately  directed  to  it  by  witnessing  the  alarming  progress  which 
the  tenets  of  the  Romish  church  are  making  in  that  quarter.  There 
is  nothing  in  them,  however,  of  a  local  nature,  or  which  is  calculated 
to  limit  their  usefulness  to  any  particular  part  of  the  kingdom.  They 
are  adapted  for  universal  perusal,  and  entitled  to  an  extensive 
circulation. 

The  first  lecture  is  on  the  claim  of  tlie  Church  of  Rome  to  the 
appellation  of  Catholic,  the  futility  and  absurdity  of  which  the  author 
has  exposed  in  a  concise  but  highly  satisfactory  manner.  On  this 
part  of  the  argument,  he  very  acutely  remarks,  that  "  no  church  which 
is  not  coeval  with  Christianity  itself  ought  to  pretend  to  be  the  uni- 
versal Christian  church. 

"  The  contrary  sentiment  is  evidently  unreasonable  and  absurd  ;  for 
it  supposes  that  something  which  has  already  a  distinct  and  complete 
existence  may  be  a  part  of  something  else  which  is  not  to  come  into 
being  until  a  future  period ;  or,  which  is  equivalent  to  this,  that  what 
is  entirely  the  creation  of  to-day  may  include  that  which  was  created 
yesterday.  This  would  be  in  opposition  to  all  analogy ;  and,  there- 
fore, if  the  Church  of  Rome  had  not  an  earlier  commencement  than  all 
other  Christian  churches — if  the  origin  of  that  church  be  not  coincident 
and  simultaneous  with  the  first  moment  of  Christianity — then  the  preten- 
sion of  the  Church  of  Rome  to  be  the  '  catholic  church'  is  altogether 
vain.  Now  it  is  clear  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  that  many  Christian 
churches  flourished  in  the  East  before  the  gospel  was  even  preached 
at  Rome.  It  was  enjoined  on  the  apostles  that  their  ministry  should 
begin  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  in  that  city  the  first  Christian  church  was 
actually  constituted.  Until  the  persecution  which  arose  about  the 
stoning-  of  Stephen,  Christ  was  not  preached  beyond  the  borders  of 
Palestine,  and  even  then,  with  a  scrupulous  discrimination,  'to  the 
Jews  only.'  In  fact,  churches  were  formed  in  Jerusalem  and  Judea, 
at  Damascus  and  Antioch,  and  the  gospel  was  sent  even  into  Ethiopia, 
before  there  is  any  evidence  of  its  being  known  at  Rome." — Pp.  10,  11. 

The  second  lecture  is  an  historical  exposition  of  the  principal  events 
which  led  to  the  elevation  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to  supremacy :  in 
tracing  these  much  acumen  is  evinced,  as  well  as  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance whh  ecclesiastical  history. 

The  third  lecture  consists  of  a  masterly  delineation  of  the  genius 
and  characteristics  of  the  papal  ascendency.  In  this  part  of  the  work, 
the  judicious  author  enters  deeply  into  the  interior  spirit  of  popery. 
After  setting  in  a  striking  light  the  seeming  impossibihties  it  had  to 


BIRT  ON  POPERY.  339 

encounter  ere  it  could  accomplish  its  object,  he  enumerates  the  expe- 
dients employed  for  this  purpose  under  the  following  heads.  The 
votaries  of  the  papal  see  succeeded,  1.  By  enslaving  the  mental 
faculties  to  human  authority  ;  2.  By  giving  to  superstition  the  sem- 
blance and  sanction  of  religion ;  3.  By  administering  the  affairs  of 
their  government  on  the  corruptest  principles  of  worldly  policy.  Each 
of  these  topics  is  illustrated  witli  great  judgment,  and  a  copious 
induction  of  facts.  On  the  last  of  these  heads  we  beg  leave  to  present 
to  our  readers  the  following  extract,  as  a  specimen  of  the  style  and 
spirit  of  this  writer. 

"  '  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,'  saith  our  Lord  ;  '  My  kingdom 
is  of  this  world,'  is  truly  the  sentiment  of  the  pope ;  and  here  lies  the 
dillerence.  Tiie  only  consistent  view  of  this  church  is  that  of  a  politi- 
cal establishment,  employing,  indeed,  religious  terms  and  denominations, 
but  only  as  the  pretext  and  colour  of  an  inordmate  pursuit  of  secular 
and  temporal  objects.  Read  its  history  as  that  of  a  Christian  church  ; 
you  stumble  at  every  step,  and  every  period  shocks  you  with  the 
grossest  incongruities  :  read  the  same  history  as  one  of  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world ;  all  is  natural  and  easy,  and  the  various  proceedings 
and  events  are  just  what  you  are  prepared  to  expect.  The  papal 
supremacy  was  conceded  by  an  earthly  monarch  ;  all  its  interests  have 
varied  with  the  fluctuations  of  human  aflairs  ;  and  when  the  princes  of 
this  world  shall  withdraw  their  support,  it  will  fall,  and  '  great  will  be 
the  fall  thereof.'  The  bishops  of  Rome  have  ever  pursued,  under  the 
guise  of  religion,  some  earthly  advantage ;  and  thus  Pope  Leo  the 
Tenth  exclaimed  most  appropriately,  '  O,  how  profitable  has  this  fable 
of  Jesus  been  unto  us  !' 

"  The  first  object  of  these  subtle  politicians  was  to  provide  a  revenue, 
ample  and  permanent.  Kings  and  nations  were  accordingly  laid  under 
tribute ;  and  to  the  utmost  extent  of  papal  influence,  the  treasures  of 
Christendom  flowed  into  the  exchequer  of  Rome.  On  every  hand,  art, 
fraud,  and  intimidation  were  equally  and  successfully  employed  in 
transferring  the  wealth  of  the  world  to  the  coflers  of  the  church. 

"  This  was  effected  partly  by  regular  ecclesiastical  taxes,  but  princi- 
pally by  selling  every  thing  the  Church  of  Rome  had  to  bestow,  and 
by,perpetually  inventing  new  articles  of  bargain  and  sale.  Hence  the 
nuiltiplying  of  sacraments ;  hence  the  sale  of  pardons,  indulgences, 
benefices,  dignities,  and  of  prayers  for  the  living  and  the  dead.  Every 
thing  was  prostituted  ;  and  under  the  pretence  of  being  the  '  bride,  the 
Lamb's  wife,'  this  church  became  the  '  mother  of  harlots.'  In  the  same 
spirit  the  deaih-beds  of  the  rich  were  besieged,  that  they  might 
bequeath  their  property  to  the  clergy  ;  and  the  consciences  of  opulent 
criminals  were  appeased,  in  return  for  liberal  donations  to  ecclesiastical 
funds.  Thus  an  amount  of  riches  almost  incredible  accrued  to  the 
papal  treasury." — Pp.  94-96. 

The  fourth  lecture  is  occupied  by  giving  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  most 
interesting  events  in  the  past  history  of  the  Romish  comnnmity.  We 
have  seldom,  if  ever,  seen  so  large  a  body  of  facts  exhibited  with  per- 
fect perspicuity  witliin  so  small  a  compass :  the  author's  complete 

Y2 


340  REVIEW  OF  BIRT  ON  POPERY. 

mastery  of  the  subject  appears  from  the  ease  with  which  he  has 
condensed  an  immense  mass  of  historical  matter,  without  the  least 
indication  of  disorder  or  confusion. 

The  last  of  these  lectures  presents  an  animated  and  instructive  view 
of  the  prospects  which  are  opening  on  the  Christian  church,  and  the 
probable  issue  of  the  causes  and  events  which  are  in  present  operation. 

The  notice  we  have  taken  of  this  publication  will,  we  trust,  induce 
our  readers  to  avail  themselves  of  the  instruction  and  the  pleasure 
which  an  attentive  perusal  cannot  fail  to  bestow.  It  is  distinguished 
for  precision  and  comprehension  of  thought,  energy  of  diction,  and  the 
most  enlarged  and  enlightened  principles  of  civil  and  religious  freedom  ; 
nor  should  we  find  it  easy  to  name  a  publication  which  contains  within 
the  same  compass  so  much  information  on  the  subject  which  it  professes 
to  treat.  A  little  redundance  of  ornament,  and  excess  in  the  employment 
of  figurative  language,  are  excrescences  very  pardonable  in  a  young 
writer,  and  which  more  mature  years  and  experience  may  be  safely 
left  to  correct.  On  the  whole,  we  cannot  dismiss  the  work  before  us 
without  sincerely  congratulating  the  author  on  that  happy  combination 
of  philosophical  discrimination  with  Christian  piety  which  it  through- 
out displays. 


MISCELLANEOUS    PIECES, 


COLLECTED    FROM 


DIFFERENT   SOURCES. 


CHARACTER  OF  CLEANDER. 

IWritten  in  1786.] 


"  NEC    ASPERA    TERRENT.' 


Whoever  contemplates  the  various  calamities  that  fill  the  world, 
and  the  still  more  numerous  avenues  by  which  we  are  exposed  to 
distress,  will  be  affected  with  a  sense  of  the  misery  of  man.  In  this 
survey,  we  need  not  search  for  remote  and  distant  evils  ;  we  need  not 
crowd  our  imagination  with  the  horrors  of  war,  the  progress  of  armies, 
or  the  desolation  of  states.  In  the  most  familiar  walks  of  life  we 
meet  with  scenes  at  which  humanity  must  bleed :  scenes  of  distress 
lie  open  on  every  side :  every  quarter  is  filled  with  the  groans  of  the 
dying,  and  lamentations  for  the  dead.  In  the  mass  of  manlvind  we 
can  scarcely  select  an  individual  in  whose  bosom  there  does  not  rankle 
unpublished  griefs ;  and,  could  we  look  into  the  hearts  of  the  most 
tranquil,  we  should  often  find  them  a  prey  to  unpitied  regrets,  torn 
with  anxiety,  and  bleeding  with  disappointments. 

Retiring  from  this  melancholy  spectacle,  without  looking  any  further, 
we  might  be  ready  to  consider  the  world  as  a  great  nursery  of  disease, 
a  vast  receptacle  of  miseries,  filled  with  beings  whom  Providence  has 
endowed  with  sensibility  to  sufi'er,  rather  than  capacities  to  enjoy ;  but 
to  him  who  views  the  moral  infiuence  of  afflictions,  the  evils  they  are 
intended  to  correct,  and  the  benefits  they  impart,  they  will  appear  in  a 
very  different  light;  he  will  consider  them  as  at  once  the  punishments 
of  vice,  and  the  cure  of  it.  Sorrow  is,  indeed,  the  offspring  of  guilt, 
but  the  parent  of  wisdom.  Stern  in  her  aspect,  and  severe  in  her 
deportment,  she  is,  however,  sent  on  a  message  of  mercy.  She  is 
destined  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  intemperance,  to  break  her  en- 
chantmems,  to  expose  her  delusions,  and  to  deliver  from  thraldom  such 
as  are  entangled  in  her  snares,  or  are  sleeping  in  her  arms.  Whoever 
surveys  the  course  of  his  past  life,  with  a  view  to  remark  the  false 
steps  he  has  taken  in  it,  will  find  that  as  they  have  been  preceded  by 
indiscretion,  they  have  been  recalled  by  distress.  To  every  object 
our  attachment  is  proportioned  to  the  pleasures  we  have  received  or 
expect  to  receive  from  it,  and  the  passion  will  continue  to  be  cherished 
as  long  as  the  recollection  of  it  calls  up  ideas  of  pleasure  rather  than 
of  pain.     Now,  every  vicious  pursuit  is  founded  on  indulgence,  and 


344  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

disguised  by  inclination.  To  the  licentious  and  abandoned,  therefore, 
there  is  no  prospect  of  the  termination  of  their  vices,  till,  by  actual 
experience  of  the  miseries  they  inflict,  they  convey  to  the  mind  more 
sentiments  of  aversion  than  of  love. 

From  the  moment  that  the  enchantment  is  dispelled,  the  false  colours 
stripped  ofl",  they  will  be  regarded  as  specious  deformities  and  real 
dangers.  Multitudes  who  could  never  be  persuaded  by  the  calls  of 
interest,  or  the  voice  of  conviction,  to  restrain  the  license  of  their  pas- 
sions, and  abandon  their  criminal  pursuits,  have  been  reclaimed  by  the 
lash  of  adversity.  The  decay  of  health,  the  desertion  of  friends,  and 
the  neglect  of  the  world  have  not  unfrequently  softened  those  hardier 
spirits  to  whom  the  charms  of  virtue  have  been  displayed  in  vain. 

Nor  is  sorrow  less  eff'ectual  in  the  correction  of  foibles  than  in  the 
extinction  of  vice.  Oleander,  in  other  respects  a  man  of  virtue  and 
honour,  had,  from  his  infancy,  accustomed  himself  to  the  unbounded 
indulgence  of  his  tongue.  Upon  all  occasions  he  trod  on  the  very 
brink  of  decorum,  a  total  stranger  to  the  delicacies  of  friendship,  which 
generously  hides  the  faults  it  cannot  correct.  His  ridicule  was  turned 
on  the  imperfections  of  his  friends  and  his  enemies,  with  indiscriminate 
severity.  The  splendour  of  distinguished  virtue,  which  sets  at  a  dis- 
tance the  reproaches  of  the  world,  and  almost  sanctifies  the  blemishes 
of  an  illustrious  character,  exempted  no  foibles  from  the  scourge  of  Ole- 
ander ;  but  rather  quickened  his  acuteness  to  remark  and  his  asperity 
to  expose  them,  as  it  furnished  a  display  of  his  penetration  in  discov- 
ering imperfections  where  there  appeared  to  the  world  nothing  but 
unmingled  excellence.  It  was,  indeed,  his  delight  to  remark  the 
shades  of  a  brilliant  character,  and  to  portray  with  exactness  the 
secret  gradations  of  excellence  by  which  it  fell  short  of  perfection. 
Yet  in  Oleander  this  conduct  by  no  means  sprang  from  envy  of  supe- 
rior worth,  or  the  malignant  desire  of  degrading  every  one  to  his  own 
level.  He  possessed  the  magnanimity  of  a  virtuous  mind,  and  dis- 
dained to  lessen  his  own  inferiority  by  any  other  means  than  that  of 
honest  emulation.  It  had  its  basis  in  a  taste  for  ridicule  and  the  pride 
of  wit.  His  deportment  could  not  fail  to  issue  in  perplexity  and  dis- 
tress. His  enemies  considered  him  as  a  kind  of  beast  of  prey,  a 
savage  of  the  desert,  whom  they  were  authorized  to  wound  by  every 
weapon  of  offence,  some  by  open  defamation,  and  some  by  poisoned 
arrows  in  the  dark.  His  friends  began  to  look  upon  him  with  aliena- 
tion and  distrust,  esteeming  their  character  too  sacred  to  be  suspended, 
for  the  sport  of  an  individual,  on  the  breezy  point  of  levity  and  wit. 

His  appearance  was  a  signal  for  general  complaint ;  and  he  could 
scarcely  enter  into  company  hoping  to  enjoy  the  unmingled  pleasures 
of  social  converse,  but  he  had  innumerable  jealousies  to  allay,  and 
misunderstandings  to  set  right.  He  was  everywhere  received  with 
marks  of  disgust ;  met  with  resentment  for  which  he  could  not  ac- 
count ;  and  was  obliquely  insulted  for  careless  strokes  of  satire,  of 
which  he  retained  no  recollection.  Wherever  he  turned  himself,  he 
found  his  path  was  strewed  with  thorns ;  and  that  even  they  who  ad- 
mired his  wit  secretly  vilified  his  character,  and   shrunk  from  his 


CHARACTER  OF  CLEANDER.  345 

acquaintance.  His  peace  began  to  bleed  on  every  side  ;  his  reputation 
was  tarnished ;  his  fairest  prospects  blasted  ;  and  Cleander,  at  length 
awakened  from  his  delusions,  was  convinced,  when  it  was  too  hite,  of 
a  lesson  he  had  often  been  taught  in  vain,  that  the  attachments  of 
friendship  and  the  tranquillity  of  life  are  too  valuable  to  be  sacrificed 
to  a  blaze  of  momentary  admiration. 

A  consideration  of  the  benefit  of  afflictions  should  teach  us  to  bear 
them  patiently  when  they  fall  to  our  lot ;  and  to  be  thankful  to  Heaven 
for  having  planted  such  barriers  around  us,  to  restrain  the  exuberance 
of  our  follies  and  our  crimes. 

Let  these  sacred  fences  be  removed ;  exempt  the  ambitious  from 
disappointment,  and  the  guilty  from  remorse  ;  let  luxury  go  unattended 
with  disease,  and  indiscretion  lead  into  no  embarrassments  or  distresses ; 
our  vices  would  range  without  control,  and  the  impetuosity  of  our  pas- 
sions have  no  bounds ;  every  family  would  be  filled  witli  strife,  every 
nation  with  carnage,  and  a  deluge  of  calamities  would  break  in  upon 
us  which  would  produce  more  misery  in  a  year  than  is  inflicted  by  the 
hand  of  Providence  in  a  lapse  of  ages. 


A   REVERY. 

[Written  in  1786.] 


"  Aux  peupUers  qui  bornent  mon  sAjour, 
J'avois  jure  de  suspendre  ma  lyre ; 
De  respirer,  d'etre  heureux  sans  df  lire, 
D'oser  sur  tout,  6tre  heureux  sans  I'amour 
J'avois  jure  ;  mais  je  I'ai  vu  sourire, 
Et  sur  son  aile  il  emporte  aujourd'hui 
Tous  le3  sermens  que  j'ai  faits  centre  lui." 

DoraU 

ENGLISHED  THUS  : 

"  On  the  tall  poplars  which  surround  my  cot, 
And  mark  the  bound'ries  of  my  humble  lot. 
Where  I  so  oft  of  Cupid's  power  have  sang 
I  fiercely  swore  my  unstrung  lyre  to  hang: 
To  breathe  in  peace — to  taste  the  quiet  joy 
Of  calm  contentment,  which  can  never  cloy : 
But,  more  than  all,  to  banish  from  my  heart 
Tormenting  love,  and  its  too  pleasing  smart : 
Thus  did  I  swear — but  listening  Cupid  smUed, 
And,  while  with  his  enchantments  he  beguiled, 
He  wafted  on  his  pinions  far  away 
My  fruitless  oaths,  rebellious  to  his  sway." 

Ineptris. 

After  reading  some  passages  in  the  fourth  book  of  Virgil,  in  which 
he  paints  the  distress  of  Dido  upon  her  being  deserted  by  ^Eneas,  I 
could  not  help  revolving  in  my  mind,  with  a  good  deal  of  uneasiness, 
the  miseries  of  love.  My  reflections  threw^  me  into  a  revery,  which 
presented  to  my  mind  an  imaginary  train  of  circumstances,  which  I 
shall  now  relate,  hoping  they  may  tend  to  cherish  that  virtuous  sensi- 
bility which  is  the  ornament  of  our  nature.  My  fancy  naturally  carried 
me  into  the  times  of  heathenish  superstition,  which  I  hope  will  be  my 
apology  for  mentioning  gods  and  goddesses.  I  imagined  that  the  power 
of  Love  had  occasioned  general  discontent,  and  that  the  different 
orders  of  men  had  entered  into  an  agreement  to  petition  Jupiter  for 
her  removal. 

I  thought  that  at  the  head  of  these  complainers  stood  the  men  of 
learning  and  science  ;  they  lamented  with  vehemence  the  inroads 
of  love,  and  that  it  often  betrayed  them  from  the  paths  of  knowledge 
into  perplexity  and  intrigue.  They  alleged  that  it  extinguished  in  the 
bosom  of  the  young  all  thirst  after  laudable  improvement,  and  planted 
in  its  stead  frivolous  and  tormenting  desires.  That  the  pursuit  of  truth 
called  for  a  tranquil  and  serene  state  of  mind ;  while  love  was  con- 


A  R EVERY.  347 

stantly  attended  with  tumult  and  alarm.  Whatever  turn  she  takes, 
said  they,  she  will  ever  be  an  enemy  to  labour ;  her  smiles  are  too 
gay,  and  her  disappointments  too  melancholy,  for  any  serious  applica- 
tion. They  were  grieved  to  see  that  so  trifling  a  passion  slioiild 
occupy  so  much  time  and  attention,  and  that  man,  who  was  formed  to 
contemplate  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  should  spend  lialf  his  life  in 
gaining  the  good  graces  of  the  weaker  and  more  inconsiderable  part  of 
his  species.  I  thought  I  perceived  that  this  turn  for  love  and  gallantry 
gave  particular  otl'ence  to  the  whole  tribe  of  astronomers  and  profound 
philosophers.  They  saw,  with  indignation,  that  many  of  our  youth 
were  more  anxious  to  explain  a  look  than  to  solve  a  problem,  and  that 
they  would  often  be  playing  with  a  fan  when  they  should  be  handling 
a  quadrant.  It  infatuates  every  one,  said  they,  who  is  so  unhappy  as 
to  be  touciied  with  it.  He  is  often  more  attentive  to  every  change  of 
countenance  in  a  celebrated  beauty  than  to  the  phases  of  the  moon ; 
and  is  more  anxious  to  be  acquainted  with  all  her  manoeuvres  than 
wuh  the  motion  of  the  whole  planetary  system.  One  in  particular 
affirmed,  upon  his  knowledge,  that  he  had  been  acquauued  with  students 
in  anatomy  who  looked  with  more  curiosity  into  the  countenance  of  a 
young  beauty  than  upon  the  dissection  of  a  bullock's  eye.  Some,  who 
pretend  to  see  much  farther  than  the  vulgar,  considered  every  thing 
relating  to  love  as  capricious  and  visionary.  Since  we  are  all  formed 
of  the  same  materials,  it  seemed  to  them  very  unreasonable  that  a  little 
difference  in  form  and  colour  should  raise  such  violent  commotions. 
Beauty,  they  said,  was  but  a  superficial  covering,  and  every  thing  at  the 
bottom  was  alike.  Upon  this  principle,  they  looked  upon  it  as  the  height 
of  philosophy  to  view  with  indifference  what  has  always  given  mankind 
the  greatest  pleasure.  This  humour  they  carried  so  far,  that  they 
lamented  they  could  not  strip  nature  herself  of  her  delusions,  as  they 
termed  them,  by  taking  off  those  agreeable  colourings  of  light  and  shade 
which  lie  upon  objects  around  us,  and  give  them  all  their  richness  and 
beauty.  They  would  have  been  glad  to  have  turned  the  creation  into 
a  colourless  and  dreary  waste,  that  they  might  have  wandered  up  and 
down,  and  taken  a  closer  survey  of  it. 

The  next  class  of  petitioners,  I  observed,  were  the  men  of  business. 
They  set  out  with  remarking  that  they  did  not  join  in  the  complaints 
that  were  made  against  love  upon  their  own  account;  for  though  they 
had  been  weak  enough,  in  the  younger  part  of  their  lives,  to  fall  under 
its  influence,  it  was  many  years  since  they  had  felt  the  slightest  im- 
pression of  it.  They  had  in  view  the  welfare  of  their  children,  and 
this  being  neither  more  nor  less  than  their  afBuence,  they  were  led  to 
consider  love  chiefly  in  the  light  of  an  expensive  passion.  Its  little 
tendernesses  and  endearments  appeared  to  them  inexpressibly  ridiculous, 
and  they  wondered  how  anybody  could  be  foolish  enough  to  spend 
hours  in  tattling  to  women,  without  thinking  to  gain  a  farthing  by  it. 
They  gave  a  long  list  of  young  men,  who  had  been  frugal  and  indus- 
trious, till  they  were  enticed  by  love  to  prefer  pleasure  to  profit.  Thev 
declared  that  when  we  take  an  account  of  balls  and  treats,  and  trinkets 
of  various  kinds,  with  the  loss  of  time   inseparably  attendant  upon 


348  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

them,  it  was  at  the  peril  of  a  fortune  to  attempt  the  heart  of  a  beloved 
object.  I  was  a  good  deal  amused  with  the  manner  in  which  they 
treated  of  love  ;  they  considered  it  as  they  would  any  other  commodity, 
setting  a  price  upon  every  part  of  it.  They  reckoned  a  sigh  at  a  shilling, 
and  if  it  chance  to  be  observed  by  the  person  for  whom  it  is  intended, 
it  was  well  even  if  half  a  guinea  cleared  the  expense  of  it.  A  side 
glance  was  rated  at  half  as  much  as  a  full  view  ;  they  portioned  out 
all  the  parts  of  a  beautiful  person,  and  made  a  valuation  of  each  of  them. 
The  same  scale  was  applied  to  their  very  attitudes ;  for  the  sight  of  a 
beautiful  woman  dancing  was  accounted  a  matter  of  enormous  expense  ; 
and  if  she  chanced  to  smile  with  any  degree  of  complacency  upon 
any  one,  it  was  well  if  he  was  not  ruined ;  under  these  impressions, 
they  considered  love  as  the  certain  forerunner  of  poverty. 

There  was  one  complaint  raised  against  this  passion  which  I  thought 
had  something  in  it  more  plausible  than  any  I  have  yet  mentioned ;  it 
turned  upon  the  ease  with  which  it  makes  its  approaches  upon  us,  and 
the  impossibility  of  guarding  against  its  first  advances.  We  have  been 
able,  said  they,  by  art  to  manage  the  elements,  so  as  in  general  to 
prevent  any  dangerous  overflowings  of  them.  We  brave  the  storm  in 
ships,  and  dive  into  the  sea  in  bells  ;  but  the  ingenuity  of  man  has  hit 
upon  no  contrivance  to  save  us  from  the  influence  of  love.  Could  we 
call  it  in  to  amuse  a  leisure  hour,  or  to  relieve  the  languor  of  a  few 
tedious  moments,  and  then  dismiss  it  again,  it  might  be  esteemed  a 
blessing  in  a  life  so  barren  of  enjoyment.  But  it  is  an  influence  that 
is  shed  all  around  us,  and  pours  itself  upon  us  from  every  corner.  It 
often  lies  hid  between  the  keys  of  a  harpsichord,  and  is  shaken  out 
with  a  few  touches  of  the  fingers.  It  flounces  in  an  apron,  and  is 
trailed  along  with  a  petticoat.  No  circumspection  can  preserve  us 
from  it ;  for  it  will  often  steal  upon  us  when  we  are  least  upon  our 
guard.  It  hides  itself  in  a  lock,  and  waves  in  ringlets  of  the  hair.  It 
will  enter  by  an  eye,  an  ear,  a  hand,  or  a  foot.  A  glance  and  a  gaze 
are  sometimes  equally  fatal. 

I  was  next  presented  with  a  scene  which  I  thought  as  interesting 
and  solemn  as  can  enter  into  the  imagination  of  man.  This  was  no 
other  than  a  view  of  the  whole  train  of  disappointed  lovers.  At  the 
sight  of  them  my  heart  insensibly  melted  into  the  most  tender  com- 
passion. There  was  an  extreme  dejection,  mingled  whh  a  piercing 
wildness,  in  their  looks,  that  was  very  affecting.  Cheerfulness  and 
serenity,  I  could  easily  perceive,  they  had  long  been  strangers  to. 
Their  countenances  were  overspread  with  a  gloom  which  appeared  to 
be  of  long  standing,  and  to  be  collected  there  from  dark  and  dismal 
imaginations.  There  was  at  the  same  time  all  that  kind  of  animation 
in  their  features  which  betokens  troubled  thoughts.  Their  air  and 
manner  was  altogether  singular,  and  such  as  marks  a  spirit  at  once 
eager  and  irresolute.  Their  step  was  irregular,  and  they  ever  and 
anon  started  and  looked  around  them,  as  though  they  were  alarmed  by 
some  secret  terror.  I  was  somewhat  surprised,  in  looking  through  the 
whole  assembly,  not  to  see  any  one  that  wept.  When  they  were 
arrived  at  the  place  where  they  had  determined  to  present  their  united 


A  REVERY.  349 

petitions,  I  was  particularly  attentive  to  observe  every  thing  that  passed. 
Though  I  listened,  I  could  not  learn  any  thing  distinctly.  After  an 
interval  of  profound  silence,  a  murmur  only  of  broken  sighs  and 
piercing  exclamations  was  heard  through  the  assembly.  I  should  have 
mentioned  that  some  of  them  fell  off  before  they  had  got  to  the  place 
of  rendezvous.  They  halted  for  some  time,  and  continued  in  a  melan- 
choly suspense,  whether  they  should  turn  back  or  go  forward.  They 
knew  not  which  to  prefer,  the  tranquillity  of  indifference  or  the  lender 
distresses  of  love  ;  at  length  they  inclined  to  the  latter,  not  having 
resolution  even  to  wish  for  the  extinction  of  a  passion  which  mingled 
itself  with  the  very  elements  of  their  existence.  "  Why,"  said  they, 
•'  should  we  banish  from  our  minds  the  image  of  all  that  is  pleasing 
and  delightful,  and  wliich  if  we  could  once  forget,  there  woidd  be 
nothing  left  in  the  world  worth  remembering?"  The  agitation  and 
anxiety  felt  upon  this  occasion,  could  I  lay  it  fully  open  to  the  reader, 
would  form  a  much  more  interesting  picture  than  the  deliberations  of 
Caesar,  whether  he  should  pass  the  Rubicon. 

I  imagined  there  were  several  other  distinct  bodies  of  men  who 
complained  to  the  heavenly  powers  of  the  tyranny  of  love,  but  the 
particulars  having  in  a  great  measure  faded  from  my  memory,  the 
reader  must  excuse  my  passing  them  over  in  silence.  I  must  not, 
however,  forget  to  observe,  that  the  number  and  unanimity  of  those  who 
presented  their  petitions  on  the  occasion  were  such,  that  they  might 
fairly  be  considered  as  representing  the  sentiments  of  far  the  greater 
part  of  mankind. 

Perhaps  Providence  never  chastises  the  folly  of  men  more  justly 
than  by  granting  the  indulgence  of  their  requests.  Upon  this  occasion 
I  observed  their  wishes  were  accomplished,  and  they  were  relieved 
from  a  tyranny  of  which  they  had  so  heavily  complained.  Upon  an 
appointed  day  the  goddess  of  love  took  her  flight  to  the  higher  regions, 
from  which  she  had  descended  ;  her  influence  was  at  once  withdrawn, 
and  all  her  enchantments  were  broken  up.  I  thought  nothing  could 
equal  the  joy  that  was  expressed  upon  this  occasion.  The  air  rung 
with  acclamations,  and  every  man  was  in  haste  to  congratulate  his 
neighbour  on  their  deliverance  from  a  thraldom  which  had  sunk  the 
spirit  and  degraded  the  dignity  of  the  human  race.  They  seemed  all 
to  be  lightened  of  a  load,  and  to  break  forth  with  fresh  vivacity  and 
spirit.  Everyone  imagined  he  was  entering  upon  quite  a  new  career, 
and  that  the  world  was  laid  fresh  open  before  him. 

I  could  not  help  feeling  an  inward  delight  in  seeing  my  fellow- 
creatures  made  at  once  so  happy.  At  the  same  time  I  was  anxious 
to  know  what  would  follow  upon  this  new  revolution,  and  particularly 
whether  it  Avould  answer  the  high  expectations  that  were  formed  from 
it.  Upon  my  looking  around  I  was  a  witness  to  appearances  which 
filled  me  witli  melancholy  and  regret.  A  total  change  had  taken  place 
in  the  whole  train  of  human  affairs,  and  I  observed  to  my  sorrow  the 
change  was  everywhere  for  the  worse.  It  was  melancholy  now  to 
enter  into  company ;  for  instead  of  conversation  enlivened  by  vivacity 
and  wit,  there  was  nothing  heard  of  but  a  drowsy  humming,  to  the  last 


350  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

degree  tiresome  and  insipid.  In  the  social  intercourse  of  men  the 
heart  had  no  place ;  pleasure  and  the  desire  of  pleasing  were  equally 
nnknovvn. 

Those  whom  I  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  I  thought  very  much 
resembled  the  loungers  and  coxcombs  of  our  day,  who,  without  any 
view  of  receiving  pleasure,  mingle  in  a  crowd  and  engage  in  conversa- 
tion, not  to  enjoy  time,  but  to  kill  it.  I  now  sought  in  vain  for  those 
friendly  meetings  at  which  I  had  often  been  present,  where  every  one, 
desirous  of  adding  something  to  the  pleasure  of  the  whole,  drew  forth 
the  fairest  ideas  of  his  mind,  and  by  the  display  of  tender  sentiments 
melted  the  heart  and  soothed  the  imagination.  With  what  regret  did 
I  recollect  those  conversation  parties  in  which  my  heart  was  wont  to 
be  full,  and  to  pour  itself  forth  as  we  talked  ourselves  alternately  into 
sadness  and  into  joy  ! 

I  had  an  opportunity  of  correcting  a  mistake  intowliich  I  had  fallen, 
in  imagining  that  love  reached  only  to  courtsliip  and  marriage ;  I  saw 
that  it  insensibly  mingles  with  our  most  trifling  actions,  refining  our 
tlioughts  and  polishing  our  manners  when  we  are  least  aware  of  it. 
The  men  had  now  entirely  thrown  aside  that  tenderness  and  gallantry 
which  are  the  great  ornaments  of  human  nature,  and  are  so  peculiarly 
needful  to  temper  and  soften  the  rudeness  of  masculine  strength.  Men 
and  women  were  now  placed  quite  upon  a  level,  so  that  the  harmo- 
nious softness  of  the  female  voice  was  drowned  in  turbulence  and 
noise.  The  ear  was  filled,  but  the  heart  was  left  empty.  Politeness 
was  exchanged  for  a  tame  civility,  wit  for  merriment,  and  serenity  for 
dulness.  I  began  to  think  more  highly  than  ever  of  the  fair  sex,  and 
regarded  them  in  a  new  light,  as  a  beautiful  mirror  lying  in  the  fancy 
of  a  lover  for  him  to  dress  his  thoughts  by.  People  were  everywhere 
falling  a  prey  to  dejection,  and  complaining  of  the  faintness  of  human 
enjoyments,  as  might  well  be  expected  when  the  influence  of  love  was 
withdrawn  from  them,  which,  by  inspiring  romantic  hopes  and  romantic 
fears,  keeps  the  mind  always  in  motion,  and  makes  it  run  clear  and 
bright.  You  may  be  sure  nothing  could  make  a  more  ridiculous 
appearance  than  courtship,  at  a  time  when  women  retained  their  vanity 
after  they  had  lost  their  charms.  Such  is  the  force  of  habit  that  you 
might  often  see  a  pretty  creature  twirling  her  fan  and  playing  off  her 
little  enchanting  airs  before  her  lover,  who  perhaps  sat  all  that  time 
perfectly  insensible,  fingering  his  buttons  or  picking  his  teeth.  Vanity, 
I  perceived,  was  a  kind  of  instinct  in  women,  that  made  them  employ 
the  whole  artillery  of  tlieir  charms  when  they  knew  they  could  do 
no  execution.  Indeed,  their  airs  appeared  so  ridiculous  now  in  the 
eyes  of  the  men  that  they  had  often  much  ado  to  refrain  from  laughter. 
The  coquettes  particularly,  in  their  flutterings  to  and  fro,  made  as  odd 
a  figure  as  fish  which  should  be  frozen  around  in  the  very  act  of 
swimming.  Out  of  respect  to  the  ladies,  however,  I  would  compare 
them  to  the  Grecian  chiefs,  who,  according  to  the  representation  of 
the  poets,  carried  with  them  so  lively  an  impression  of  their  former 
employments,  that  they  would  be  marshalling  their  troops  and  bran- 
dishing their  swords  even  in  the  shades  below^  '  However,  the  fair 


A  REVERY.  351 

sex  were  soon  relieved  from  this  sort  of  ridicule.  They  no  longer 
took,  any  pains  to  smooth  their  brow,  to  soften  their  features  into  a 
smile,  or  to  light  up  the  beam  of  brightness  in  their  eye.  Careless 
of  offending  where  they  knew  they  could  not  please,  they  became 
negligent  in  their  persons  and  vulgar  in  their  air.  I  cannot  express 
the  regret  I  felt  upon  beholding  the  fairest  and  most  beautiful  part  of 
the  creation  thus  tlirown  into  shade. 

I  thought  I  perceived  that  the  fine  arts  began  to  languish,  the  paint- 
ings that  made  their  appearance  at  the  time  were  neither  boldly 
sketched  nor  so  brightly  coloured  as  those  I  was  wont  to  survey ; 
they  were  chiefly  confined  to  still-life.  I  observed,  however,  that  the 
extinction  of  love  affected  poetry  still  more  tlian  painting.  It  no  longer 
regaled  the  mind  with  descriptions  of  beauty,  or  softened  it  with  tender 
distress.  Its  enchantment  was  entirely  dissolved, — that  enchantment 
that  will  carry  us  from  world  to  world  without  moving  from  our  seat, 
will  raise  a  visionary  creation  around  us,  will  make  us  to  rejoice  when 
there  is  nothing  to  rejoice  in,  and  tremble  when  there  is  nothing  to 
alarm  us.  These  interesting  situations,  which  awaken  the  attention 
and  enchain  the  mind  in  solemn  suspense  till  it  breaks  forth  into  agony 
or  rapture,  now  no  longer  existed  in  nature,  and  were  no  longer  described 
by  the  poet ;  he  wrote  rather  from  memory  than  feeling,  for  the  breath 
of  inspiration  had  ceased. 

Upon  this  occasion  I  was  not  at  all  surprised  at  the  decline  of 
eloquence.  I  have  often  thought  love  the  nurse  of  sensibility,  and 
that,  if  it  were  not  cherished  by  this  passion,  it  would  grow  cold,  and 
give  way  to  a  selfish  indiflerence.  My  conjecture  was  now  abundantly 
confirmed ;  for  though  I  saw  many  discourses  composed  at  this  time 
that  were  well-argued,  elegant,  and  correct,  they  all  wanted  those 
essential  touches  that  give  language  its  power  of  persuading. 

One  thing  a  good  deal  surprised  me,  and  that  was  to  observe  that 
even  the  profound  parts  of  learning  were  less  attended  to  than  ever.  I 
was  well  aware  that  few  apply  themselves  closely  to  study  but  witli 
the  hope  of  sometimes  displaying  their  acquisitions  to  the  public  ;  and 
I  had  imagined  fame  was  a  sufficient  recompense  for  any  toil  human 
nature  could  sustain ;  but  I  was  surprised  to  find  that,  in  all  great  and 
noble  undertakings,  the  desire  of  appearing  respectable  in  the  eyes  of 
a  beloved  object  was  of  more  consequence  than  the  general  admiration 
of  mankind. 

These  I  thought  were  not  the  only  melancholy  consequences  that 
flowed  from  the  departure  of  love.  It  may  be  sufficient,  however, 
to  observe  in  general  that  human  nature  was  becalmed,  and  all  its 
finest  emotions  frozen  into  a  torpid  insensibility.  The  situation  of 
mankind  was  truly  pitiable.  Strangers  to  the  delicate  pleasures  of 
the  heart,  every  thing  around  them  looked  cheerless  and  barren. 
Calamity  left  them  nothing  to  hope,  and  prosperity  gave  them  nothing 
to  enjoy. 

I  observed  that  they  were  now  as  desirous  of  bringing  back  the 
agency  of  love  as  they  had  been  before  to  exclude  it.  At  length  I 
imagined  that  Jupiter  was  touched  whh  compassion  at  their  unhappy 


352  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

situation,  and  appointed  a  day  in  which  Love  was  to  revisit  the  abodes 
of  men.  An  immense  number  of  people,  of  all  orders  and  ranks,  and 
of  every  age  and  condition,  assembled  themselves,  as  you  may  suppose, 
to  behold  the  descent  of  the  goddess,  and  to  hail  her  approach.  The 
heavens,  I  thought,  glowed  as  she  descended,  and  so  many  beautiful 
streaks  of  light  glanced  along  the  surface  of  the  sky,  that  they  divided 
it  into  separate  tracts,  brightened  up  every  cloud  within  it,  and  turned 
the  whole  into  an  aerial  landscape.  The  birds  at  the  same  time 
leaping  among  the  branches,  and  warbling  their  sprightliest  notes, 
filled  the  air  with  a  confused  melody  of  sounds  that  was  inexpressibly 
delightful.  Every  thing  looked  brighter  than  before,  every  thing  smelled 
sweeter,  and  seemed  to  offer  up  fresh  incense  to  the  goddess.  The 
face  of  nature  was  changed,  and  the  creation  seemed  to  grow  new 
again.  My  heart  glowed  with  delight.  I  rejoiced  in  the  renovation 
of  nature,  and  was  revived  through  my  inmost  powers.  There  thrilled 
through  me  a  delightful  sensation  of  freshness  and  novelty,  similar  to 
what  a  happy  spirit  may  be  supposed  to  feel  when  he  first  enters  a 
new  state  of  existence,  and  opens  his  eyes  on  immortality. 

I  thought  I  had  but  a  very  confused  idea  of  the  person  of  the  goddess 
herself;  for  her  raiment  was  so  full  of  light  and  lustre  that  I  could 
scarcely  take  a  steady  view  of  her.  I  observed,  however,  that  her 
complexion  was  rather  too  glowing,  and  the  motions  of  her  eye  too 
piercing  and  fiery  for  perfect  feminine  beauty.  Her  beauty,  I  thought, 
was  too  raised,  and  had  too  much  glory  in  it  to  be  entirely  attractive. 
I  was  very  much  astonished  to  observe  that  whoever  she  glanced  her 
eye  upon  immediately  fell  under  the  influence  of  the  passion  over  which 
she  presided.  It  was  a  very  singular  sight  to  see  a  whole  assembly, 
one  after  another,  falling  into  love ;  and  I  was  much  entertained  in 
observing  the  change  it  occasioned  in  the  looks  of  each  of  them, 
according  to  their  different  temper  and  constitution ;  some  appeared 
wild  and  piercing,  others  dejected  and  melancholy.  The  features  of 
several  glowed  with  admiration,  while  others  looked  down  with  a 
timid  and  bashful  respect.  A  trait  of  affectation  was  plainly  to  be 
discerned  in  all  of  them,  as  might  well  be  expected  from  a  passion  the 
very  first  effect  of  which  is  to  make  one  lose  the  possession  of  one's 
self.  Several  ladies  in  particular,  seemingly  careless  and  gay,  were 
whispering  to  those  who  stood  next  them,  and  assuming  airs  of  par- 
ticular vivacity,  while  you  might  easily  see  their  countenance  was 
checkered  with  anxiety  lest  they  should  chance  not  to  please  those 
upon  whom  they  had  fixed  their  affections.  The  greater  part  of  the 
fair  sex,  however,  I  observed,  smiled  with  an  ineflfable  sweetness,  nor 
could  any  thing  appear  more  lovely  than  their  features,  upon  which 
there  was  imprinted  a  tender  reserve,  mingled  with  modest  complacency 
and  desire.  I  imagined  that  after  the  goddess  had  thoroughly  surveyed 
the  assembly,  and  they  had  seated  themselves  into  some  degree  of 
composure,  she  thus  addressed  them: — 

"  Ye  children  of  men,  ye  abound  in  the  gifts  of  Providence,  and 
many  are  the  favours  Heaven  has  bestowed  upon  you.  The  earth 
teems  with  bounty,  pouring  forth  the  necessaries  of  life  and  the  refine- 


A  REVERY.  353 

ments  of  luxury.  The  sea  refreshes  you  wiih  its  breeze,  and  carries 
you  to  distant  shores  upon  its  bosom ;  it  links  nation  to  nation  in  the 
bonds  of  mutual  advantage,  and  transfers  to  every  climate  the  blessings 
of  all.  To  tlie  sun  you  are  indebted  for  the  splendour  of  the  day,  and 
the  gratefid  return  of  season ;  it  is  he  who  guides  you  as  you  wander 
through  the  trackless  wilderness  of  space,  lights  up  the  beauties  of 
nature  around  you,  and  makes  her  break  forth  into  fruitfulness  and 
joy.  But  know  that  these,  though  delightful,  are  not  the  pleasures  of 
the  heart.  They  will  not  heal  the  wounds  of  fortune ;  they  will  not 
enchant  solitude,  or  suspend  the  feeling  of  pain.  Know  that  I  only  am 
mistress  of  the  soul.  To  me  it  belongs  to  impart  agony  and  rapture. 
Hope  and  despair,  terror  and  delight,  walk  in  my  train.  My  power 
extends  over  time  itself,  as  well  as  over  all  sublunary  beings.  It  can 
turn  ages  into  moments,  and  moments  into  ages.  Lament  not  the 
dispensations  of  Providence,  among  which  the  bestowment  of  my 
influence  is  one.  He  who  feels  it  may  not  be  happy ;  but  he  who  is 
a  stranger  to  it  must  be  miserable." 
Vol.  n.— Z 


AN 

ESSAY  ON  POETRY  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

IWritlen  in  1787.} 


It  has  been  observed  that  it  seldom  falls  to  the  share  of  one  man  to 
be  both  a  philosopher  and  a  poet.  These  two  characters,  in  their 
full  extent,  may  be  said  to  divide  between  them  the  whole  empire  of 
genius ;  for  all  the  productions  of  the  human  mind  fall  naturally  under 
two  heads — works  of  imagination,  and  works  of  reason.  There  are 
indeed  several  kinds  of  composition  which,  to  be  perfect,  must  panake 
of  both.  In  our  most  celebrated  historians,  for  instance,  we  meet  with 
a  just  mixture  of  the  penetration  that  distinguishes  the  philosopher  and 
the  ardour  of  the  poet ;  still  their  departments  are  very  wide  of  each 
other,  and  a  small  degree  of  attention  will  be  sufficient  to  show  why  it 
is  so  extremely  difficult  to  unite  in  any  high  degree  the  excellence  of 
each.  The  end  of  the  poet  is  to  give  delight  to  his  reader,  which  he 
attempts  by  addressing  his  fancy  and  moving  his  sensibility ;  the  phi- 
losopher purposes  merely  to  instruct,  and  therefore  thinks  it  enough 
if  he  presents  his  thoughts  in  that  order  which  will  render  them  the 
most  perspicuous,  and  seems  best  adapted  to  gain  the  attention.  Their 
views  demand,  therefore,  a  very  different  procedure.  All  that  passes 
under  the  eye  of  the  poet  he  surveys  in  one  particular  view ;  every 
form  and  image  under  which  he  presents  it  to  the  fancy  are  descriptive 
of  its  effects.  He  delights  to  paint  every  object  in  motion,  that  he 
may  raise  a  similar  agitation  in  the  bosom  of  the  reader.  But  the 
calm,  deliberate  thinker,  on  the  contrary,  makes  it  his  chief  endeavour 
to  seek  out  the  remoter  causes  and  principles  which  give  birth  to  these 
appearances. 

It  is  the  highest  exertion  of  a  philosopher  to  strip  off  the  false 
colours  that  serve  to  disguise,  to  remove  every  particular  which  fancy 
or  folly  have  combined,  and  present  to  view  the  simple  and  naked 
truth.  But  the  poet,  who  addresses  the  imagination  and  the  heart, 
neglects  no  circumstance,  however  fanciful,  which  may  serve  to  attach 
his  descriptions  more  closely  to  the  human  mind.  In  describing  the 
awful  appearances  of  nature,  he  gladly  avails  himself  of  those  magic 
terrors  with  which  ignorance  and  superstition  have  surrounded  them ; 
for  though  the  light  of  reason  dispels  these  shades,  they  answer  the 
highest  purpose  of  the  poet,  in  awakening  the  passions.    It  is  the  delight 


ON  POETRY  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  355 

of  poetry  to  combine  and  associate ;  of  philosophy  to  separate  and 
distingxiish.  The  one  resembles  a  skilful  aniitomist,  who  lays  open 
every  thing  that  occurs,  and  examines  the  smallest  particulars  of  its 
make ;  the  other  a  judicious  painter,  who  conceals  what  would  offend 
the  eye,  and  embellishes  every  subject  he  undertakes  to  represent: 
the  same  object,  therefore,  which  has  engaged  the  investigating  powers 
of  the  philosopher,  takes  a  very  dilferent  appearance  from  the  forming 
hand  of  the  poet,  who  adds  every  grace  of  colouring,  and  artfully  hides 
the  nakedness  of  the  inward  structure  under  all  the  agreeable  foldings 
of  elegance  and  beauty.  In  philosophical  discussions,  the  end  of  which 
is  to  explain,  every  part  ought  to  be  unfolded  with  the  most  lucid  per- 
spicuity. But  works  of  imagination  never  exert  a  more  powerful  influ- 
ence than  when  the  author  has  contrived  to  throw  over  them  a  shade 
of  darkness  and  doubt.  The  reason  of  this  is  obvious  :  the  evils  we 
but  imperfectly  discern  seem  to  bid  defiance  to  caution ;  they  afiect 
the  mind  with  a  fearful  anxiety,  and  by  presenting  no  limits  the  ima- 
gination easily  conceives  them  boundless.  These  species  of  compo- 
sition differ  still  further  with  respect  to  the  situation  of  mind  requisite 
to  produce  them.  Poetry  is  the  offspring  of  a  mind  heated  to  an  un- 
common degree ;  it  is  a  kind  of  spirit  thrown  oft'  in  the  eflervescence 
of  the  agitated  feeling.  But  the  utmost  calmness  and  composure  is 
essential  to  philosophical  inquiry  :  novelty,  surprise,  and  astonishment 
kindle  in  the  bosom  the  fire  of  poetry ;  while  philosophy  is  reared  up 
by  cool  and  long-continued  efforts.  There  is  one  circumstance  relating 
to  this  kind  of  composition  too  material  to  be  omitted.  In  every  nation 
it  has  been  found  that  poetry  is  of  much  earlier  date  than  any  other 
production  of  the  human  mind.  As  in  the  individual,  the  imagination 
and  passions  are  more  vigorous  in  youth,  which  in  mature  age  subside, 
and  give  way  to  thought  and  reflection. 

Something  similar  to  this  seems  to  characterize  that  genius  which 
distinguishes  the  different  periods  of  society.  The  most  admired  poems 
have  been  the  offspring  of  uncultivated  ages.  Pure  poetry  consists  of 
the  descriptions  of  nature  and  the  display  of  the  passions ;  to  each  of 
which  a  rude  state  of  society  is  better  adapted  than  one  more  polished. 
They  who  live  in  that  early  period  in  which  art  has  not  alleviated  the 
calamities  of  life  are  forced  to  feel  their  dependence  upon  nature.  Her 
appearances  are  ever  open  to  their  view,  and  therefore  strongly  im- 
printed on  their  fancy.  Tfiey  shruik  at  the  approach  of  a  storm,  and 
mark  with  anxious  attention  every  variation  of  the  sky.  The  change 
of  seasons,  cloud  or  sunshine,  serenity  and  tempest,  are  to  them  real 
sources  of  sorrow  and  of  joy  ;  and  we  need  not,  therefore,  wonder 
tiiey  should  describe  with  energy  what  they  feel  with  so  much  force. 
But  it  is  one  chief  advantage  of  civilization,  that  by  enabling  us  in  some 
measure  to  control  nature,  we  become  less  subject  to  its  influence.  It 
opens  many  new  sources  of  enjoyment.  In  this  siluHiion  the  gay  and 
the  cheerful  can  always  mingle  in  company,  while  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  opens  fo  the  studious  a  new  world,  over  which  the  whirl- 
wind and  the  blast  can  exert  no  influence.  The  face  of  nature  gradually 
retires  from  view,  and  those  who  attempt  to  describe  it  often  content 

Z2 


356  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

themselves  with  copying  from  books,  whereby  their  descriptions  want 
the  freshness  and  glow  of  original  observation :  like  the  image  of  an 
object  reflected  through  various  mediums,  each  of  which  varies  some- 
what of  its  form,  and  lessens  its  splendour.  The  poetry  of  uncivilized 
nations  has,  therefore,  often  excelled  the  productions  of  a  more  refmed 
people  in  elevation  and  pathos.  Accustomed  to  survey  nature  only  in 
her  general  form  and  grander  movements,  their  descriptions  cannot  fail 
of  carrying  with  them  an  air  of  greatness  and  sublimity.  They  paint 
scenes  which  every  one  has  felt,  and  which  therefore  need  only  to  be 
presented  to  awaken  a  similar  feeling  again.  For  a  while  they  delight 
us  with  the  vastness  of  their  conceptions  ;  but  the  want  of  various  em- 
bellishments, and  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  same  images,  soon 
fatigues  the  attention,  and  their  poetry  may  be  compared  to  the  world 
of  waters,  which  fills  us  with  amazement,  but  upon  which  we  gaze  for 
a  moment,  and  then  turn  away  our  eyes.  It  is  the  advantage  of  en- 
lightened nations  that  their  superior  knowledge  enables  them  to  supply 
greater  variety,  and  to  render  poetry  more  copious.  They  allure  with 
an  agreeable  succession  of  images.  They  do  not  weary  with  uni- 
formity, or  overpower  us  with  the  continuance  of  any  one  exertion ; 
but  by  perpetually  shifting  the  scene  they  keep  us  in  a  constant  hurry 
of  delight. 

"  The  poet's  eye,  in  a  fine  phrensy  rolling, 
Doth  glance  from  heaven  to  earth,  from  earth  to  heaven. 
And,  as  imagination  bodies  forth 
The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 
Turns  them  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

Shakspeare^s  Midsummer  NighCs  Dream. 

cannot  help  observing  that  poetical  genius  seems  capable  of  much 
greater  variety  than  talents  for  philosophizing.  The  power  of  thinking 
and  reasoning  is  a  simple  energy,  which  exerts  itself  in  all  men  nearly 
in  the  same  manner  ;  indeed,  the  chief  varieties  that  hav.e  been  observed 
in  it  may  be  traced  to  two — a  capacity  of  abstract  and  mathematical 
reasoning,  and  a  talent  for  collecting  facts  and  making  observations ; 
these  qualities  of  mind,  blended  in  various  proportions,  will  for  the 
most  part  account  for  any  peculiarities  attending  men's  modes  of  think- 
ing. But  the  ingredients  that  constitute  a  poet  are  far  more  various 
and  complicated.  A  poet  is  in  a  high  degree  under  the  influence  of 
the  imagination  and  passions,  principles  of  mind  very  various  and  ex- 
tensive. Whatever  is  complicated  is  capable  of  much  greater  variety, 
and  will  be  extremely  more  diversified  in  its  form,  than  that  which  is 
more  simple.  In  this  case  every  ingredient  is  a  source  of  variety  ;  and 
by  being  mingled  in  the  composition  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  may 
give  an  original  cast  to  the  whole. 

To  explain  the  particular  causes  which  vary  the  direction  of  the 
fancy  in  diflferent  men  would  perhaps  be  no  easy  task.  We  are  led, 
it  may  be  at  first  through  accident,  to  the  survey  of  one  class  of  ob- 
jects ;  this  calls  up  a  particular  train  of  thinking,  which  we  afterward 
freely  indulge  ;  it  easily  finds  access  to  the  juind  upon  all  occasions ; 
the  slightest  accident  serves  to  suggest  it.     It  is  nvursed  by  habit,  and 


ON  POETRY  AND  PHILOSOPHY,  357 

reared  up  with  attention,  till  it  gradually  swells  to  a  torrent,  which 
bears  away  every  obstacle,  and  awakens  in  the  mind  the  conscious- 
ness of  peculiar  powers.  Such  sensations  eagerly  impel  to  a  particular 
purpose,  and  are  sufficient  to  give  to  composition  a  distinct  and  deter- 
minate character. 

Poetical  genius  is  likewise  much  under  the  influence  of  the  passions. 
The  pleased  and  the  splenetic,  the  serious  and  the  gay,  survey  nature 
with  very  different  eyes.  That  elevation  of  fancy  which,  with  a  melan- 
choly turn,  will  produce  scenes  of  gloomy  grandeur  and  awful  solemnity, 
will  lead  another,  of  a  cheerful  complexion,  to  delight,  by  presenting  ima- 
ges of  splendour  and  gayety,  and  by  inspiring  gladness  and  joy.  To  these 
and  other  similar  causes  may  be  traced  that  boundless  variety  which 
diversifies  the  works  of  imagination,  and  which  is  so  great,  that  I  have 
thought  the  perusal  of  fine  authors  is  like  traversing  the  different  regions 
of  the  earth;  some  glow  with  a  pleasant  and  refreshing  warmth,  while 
others  kindle  with  a  fierce  and  fiery  heat ;  in  one  we  meet  with  scenes 
of  elegance  and  art,  all  is  correct  and  regular,  and  a  thousand  beautiful 
objects  spread  their  colours  to  the  eye,  and  regale  the  senses ;  in 
another  we  behold  nature  iii"  an  unadorned  majestic  simplicity,  scouring 
the  plain  with  the  tempest,  silting  upon  a  rock,  or  walking  upon  the 
wings  of  the  wind.  Here  we  meet  with  a  Sterne,  who  fans  us  with 
the  softest  delicacies  ;  and  there  with  a  Rousseau,  who  hurries  us  along 
in  whirlwind  and  tempest.  Hence  that  delightful  succession  of  emo- 
tions which  are  felt  in  the  bosom  of  sensibility.  We  feel  the  empire 
of  genius,  we  imbibe  the  impression,  and  the  mind  resembles  an  en- 
chanted mansion  which,  at  the  touch  of  some  superior  hand,  at  one 
time  brightens  into  beauty,  and  at  another  darkens  into  horror.  Even 
where  the  talents  of  men  approach  most  nearly,  an  attentive  eye  will 
ever  remark  some  small  shades  of  difference,  sufficient  to  distinguish 
them.  Perhaps  few  authors  have  been  distinguished  by  more  similar 
features  of  character  than  Homer  and  Milton.  That  vastness  of  thought 
which  fills  the  imagination,  and  that  sensibility  of  spirit  which  renders 
every  circumstance  interesting,  are  the  qualities  of  both  :  but  Milton  is 
the  most  sublime,  and  Homer  the  most  picturesque.  Homer  lived  in 
an  early  age,  before  knowledge  was  much  advanced  ;  he  would  derive 
little  from  any  acquired  abilities,  and  therefore  may  be  styled  the  poet 
of  nature.  To  this  source  perhaps  we  may  trace  the  principal  differ- 
ence between  Homer  and  Milton.  The  Grecian  poet  was  left  to  the 
movements  of  his  own  mind,  and  to  the  full  influence  of  that  variety  of 
passions  which  are  common  to  all :  his  conceptions  are  therefore  dis- 
tinguished by  their  simplicity  and  force.  In  Milton,  who  was  skilled 
in  almost  every  department  of  science,  learning  seems  sometimes  to 
have  shaded  the  splendour  of  genius. 

No  epic  poet  excites  emotions  so  fervid  as  Homer,  or  possesses  so 
much  fire  ;  but  in  point  of  sublimity  he  cannot  be  compared  to  Milton. 
I  rather  think  the  Greek  poet  has  been  thought  to  excel  in  this  quality 
more  than  he  really  does,  for  want  of  a  proper  conception  of  its 
efTects.  When  the  perusal  of  an  author  raises  us  above  our  usual 
tone  of  mind,  we  immediately  ascribe  those  sensations  to  the  sublime, 


358  MISCELLANEOUS  PIECES. 

without  considering  whether  they  hght  on  the  imagination  or  the  feel- 
ings ;  whether  they  elevate  the  fancy  or  only  fire  the  passions. 

The  sublime  has  for  its  object  the  imagination  only,  and  its  influence 
is  not  so  much  to  occasion  any  fervour  of  feeling,  as  the  calmness  of 
fixed  astonishment.  If  we  consider  the  sublime  as  thus  distinguished 
from  every  other  quality,  Milton  will  appear  to  possess  it  in  an  unri- 
valled degree ;  and  here  indeed  lies  the  secret  of  his  power.  The 
perusal  of  Homer  inspires  us  with  an  ardent  sensibility ;  Milton  with 
the  stillness  of  surprise.  The  one  fills  and  delights  the  mind  with  the 
confluence  of  various  emotions ;  the  other  amazes  with  the  vastness 
of  his  ideas.  The  movements  of  Milton's  mind  are  steady  and  pro- 
gressive :  he  carries  the  fancy  through  successive  stages  of  elevation, 
and  gradually  increases  the  heat  by  adding  fuel  to  the  fire. 

The  flights  of  Homer  are  more  sudden  and  transitory.  Milton, 
whose  mind  was  enlightened  by  science,  appears  the  most  comprehen- 
sive ;  he  shows  more  acuteness  in  his  reflections,  and  more  sublimity 
of  thought.  Homer,  who  lived  more  with  men,  and  had  perhaps  a 
deeper  tincture  of  the  human  passions,  is  by  far  the  most  vehement 
and  picturesque.  To  the  view  of  Milton  the  wide  scenes  of  the  uni- 
verse seem  to  have  been  thrown  open,  which  he  regards  with  a  cool 
and  comprehensive  survey,  little  agitated,  and  superior  to  those  emo- 
tions which  afiect  inferior  mortals.  Homer,  wheji  he  rises  the  highest, 
goes  not  beyond  the  bounds  of  human  nature ;  he  still  connects  his 
descriptions  with  human  passions,  and  though  his  ideas  have  less  sub- 
limity, they  have  more  fire.  The  appetite  for  greatness — that  appetite 
which  always  grasps  at  more  than  it  can  contain — is  never  so  fully 
satisfied  as  in  the  perusal  of  "  Paradise  Lost."  In  following  Milton 
we  grow  familiar  with  new  worlds,  we  traverse  the  immensities  of  space, 
wandering  in  amazement,  and  finding  no  bounds.  Homer  confines  the 
mind  to  a  narrower  circle,  but  that  circle  he  brings  nearer  to  the  eye ; 
he  fills  it  with  a  quicker  succession  of  objects,  and  makes  it  the  scene 
ef  more  interesting  action. 


FRAGMENT    ON    POPERY. 

iWritten  about  1824.     Not  published  before.'^ 


When  two  parties,  each  formidable  for  their  numbers  and  the 
weight  of  their  influence  and  property,  are  animated  by  an  equal  degree 
•of  zeal,  it  is  natural  to  anticipate  the  final  success  of  that  which  pos- 
sesses the  most  inherent  strength.  But  if  one  be  torpid  and  inactive, 
and  the  other  eager  and  enterprising, — if  one  reposes  on  its  arms,  while 
the  other  is  incessantly  on  the  alert, — such  a  difference  in  their  spirit 
is  sufficient  to  annihilate  the  greatest  disparity  of  force,  and  to  incline 
the  balance  to  the  side  on  which  superior  vigour  is  exerted.  This,  if 
I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,  is  pretty  nearly  the  case  at  present  between 
the  Protestants  and  the  papists,  as  far,  at  least,  as  respects  their  situa- 
tion in  these  kingdoms.  The  papists  appear  to  be  stimulated  by  zeal 
and  elevated  by  hope ;  the  Protestants  content  themselves  with  being 
silent  spectators  of  their  progress,  while  many  of  them  seem  secretly 
to  rejoice  at  their  success.  New  popish  chapels  are  rising  on  every 
side,  in  situations  skilfully  selected,  willi  a  view  to  attract  the  public 
attention.  The  consecration  is  announced  with  ostentatious  publicity, 
and  numerously  attended  by  the  most  elegant  and  fashionable  part  of 
a  Protestant  population,  by  men  of  opulence,  merchants,  and  magis- 
trates, who  are  seen  on  no  otlier  occasions  beyond  the  precincts  of  the 
established  [church.] 

Judging  from  the  practice  of  a  multitude  in  the  higher  classes,  we 
are  necessitated  to  infer,  that  if  the  popish  doctrine  is  not  true  it  is 
innocejit  and  harmless ;  and  if  not  entitled  to  an  exclusive  preference, 
it  is  only  inferior  to  that  particular  form  of  the  Protestant  worship 
which  they  have  adopted  ;  and  that,  while  they  decline  submission  to 
its  claims,  it  possesses  a  majesty  which  entitles  it  to  tlieir  occasional 
homage  and  veneration.  The  honest  fervour  of  indignation  with 
which  its  pretensions  were  repelled  and  its  impiety  resented  has  dis- 
appeared :  popery  is  now  viewed  by  tiie  greater  part  of  the  people 
with  careless  indifference  or  secret  complacency. 

But  popery,  it  is  alleged,  is  changed  ;  its  venom  is  exhaled ;  and, 
however  erroneous  in  a  speculative  view,  it  is  no  longer  fraught  with 
the  miscliief  and  the  danger  which  rendered  it  so  formidable  to  our 
ancestors.     An  infallible  religion  changed  is  nearly  a  contradiction  in 


360  FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY. 

terms.  A  religion  which  is  founded  on  the  assumption  of  a  super- 
natural exemption  from  error  on  the  part  of  its  adherents,  may  be 
confuted  by  argument,  suppressed  by  force,  or  relinquished  from  con- 
viction ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  hs  susceptibility  of  change. 
If  it  undergoes  any  alteration,  it  can  only  [be]  in  consequence  of  its 
professors  renouncing  some  one  or  more  of  the  doctrines  which  for- 
merly characterized  it.  But  those  doctrines  are  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  recorded  decisions  of  the  church,  of  a  church  affirmed  by  all 
Catholics  to  be  infallible.  The  supposed  infallibility  of  the  church  is 
the  corner-stone  of  the  whole  system  of  popery,  the  centre  of  union 
amid  all  the  animosities  and  disputes  which  may  subsist  on  minor 
subjects  ;  and  the  proper  definition  of  a  Catholic  is  one  who  professes 
to  maintain  the  absolute  infallibility  of  a  certain  community  styling 
itself  the  church.  For  a  person  to  dissent  from  a  single  decision  of 
the  church  is  to  confess  himself  not  a  Catholic  ;  because  it  is  to  affirm, 
not  only  that  the  church  may  err,  but  that  it  actually  has  erred,  and  is 
therefore  not  infallible.  An  infallibility  extending  to  some  points  of 
religious  belief  and  not  to  others  is  a  ridiculous  chimera,  which,  could 
it  be  reduced  to  an  object  of  conception,  would  subvert  every  rational 
ground  of  confidence :  for  what  assurance  can  we  have  that  a  com- 
munity which  has  erred  once  will  not  fall  into  the  same  predicament 
again  ?  Positive  quahties  may  be  conceived  to  subsist  under  [all] 
possible  degrees  of  magnitude ;  they  are  susceptible,  to  an  unlimited 
extent,  of  more  or  less :  but  infallibility  is  a  negative  idea,  which  ad- 
mits of  no  degrees.  Detect  the  smallest  error  in  the  individual, 
or  the  community,  which  makes  this  pretension,  and  you  as  effectu- 
ally destroy  it  as  by  the  discovery  of  a  million.  If  a  Catholic,  then, 
professes  to  have  changed  his  opinions  on  any  subject  on  which 
the  authority  of  the  church  has  been  interposed,  so  as  to  dissent  from 
its  decisions,  he  has  relinquished  Catholicism,  and  renounced  the  only 
principle  which  distinguished  him. 

The  supposed  dominion  over  the  consciences  of  men  assumed  by 
the  Roman  pontiff,  is  sanctioned  by  the  decision  of  general  councils, 
and  incorporated  with  their  most  solemn  and  public  acts,  and  must  con- 
sequently be  allowed  to  constitute  one  of  the  fundamental  tenets  of  the 
papal  system ;  and  though  that  usurpation,  considered  in  itself,  would 
be  a  mere  annunciation  of  a  doctrine  which  might  be  rejected  with 
impunity,  the  interference  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  enforce  the  papal 
claims  was  countenanced  and  demanded  by  the  same  authority.  Be- 
yond the  narrow  precincts  of  their  temporal  domain  the  bishops  of 
Rome  were  incapable  of  personally  carrying  their  persecuting  edicts 
into  force ;  but  princes  and  magistrates  were  diligently  instructed  that 
it  was  their  indispensable  duty  to  suppress  and  punish  the  heretics 
against  whom  the  church  had  denounced  its  anathemas.  Ecclesias- 
tics, affecting  a  peculiar  horror  of  blood,  declined  the  office  of  execu- 
tioners, which  they  devolved  on  the  temporal  authorities  in  each  state  ; 
but  it  is  equally  certain,  that  in  the  violences  which  [civil  magistrates] 
committed  in  the  suppression  of  heresy  and  the  support  of  the  authority 
of  the  church,  they  acted  not  merely  agreeably  to  her  wishes,  but  in  ober 


FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY.  361 

dience  to  her  dictates.  If  there  was  any  diflerence  in  this  respect  between 
the  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  powers,  it  was  that  princes  could  with 
great  difficulty,  on  many  occasions,  be  induced  to  keep  [pace]  with  the 
prompt  and  unrelenting  fury  of  their  spiritual  directors.  The  grand 
lesson  in  which  they  [were]  indoctrinated,  with  infinitely  more  care  than 
any  other,  was  the  implicit  obedience  which  they  vowed  to  the  pontiff  and 
the  church  in  the  enactment  and  execution  of  penal  laws  against  the 
abetters  of  heretical  opinions, — an  epithet  bestowed  upon  all  opinions 
not  in  accordance  with  the  tenets  of  the  papal  community.  When 
John  Huss,  the  Bohemian  reformer,  was  arrested,  cast  into  prison,  and 
publicly  burnt  alive  at  Constance,  in  spite  of  a  "  safe-conduct"  given 
him  by  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  merely  because  he  refused  to  belie 
his  conscience  by  abjuring  his  pretended  heresy,  all  was  executed 
under  the  eyes  and  by  the  express  authority  of  the  council,  who  sol- 
emnly decreed  that  the  safe-conduct  of  the  emperor  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered as  no  impediment  to  the  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  ; 
but,  notwithstanding  this,  that  it  was  perfectly  competent  for  the 
ecclesiastical  judge  to  take  cognizance  of  his  errors,  and  to  punish 
them  agreeable  to  the  dictates  of  justice,  although  he  presented  him- 
self before  them  in  dependence  upon  that  protection,  but  for  which  he 
would  have  declined  appearing.  Nor  were  they  satisfied  with  this 
impious  decision  [alone.]  Because  murmurs  were  heard,  on  account 
of  the  violation  of  a  legal  protection,  they  had  the  audacity  to  add, 
that  since  the  said  John  Huss  had,  by  impugning  the  orthodox  faith, 
forfeited  every  privilege,  and  since  no  promise  or  faith  was  binding, 
either  by  human  or  divine  right,  in  prejudice  of  the  Catholic  faith,  the 
said  emperor  had  done  as  became  his  royal  majesty  in  violating  his 
"  safe-conduct ;"  and  that  whoever,  of  any  rank  or  sex,  dares  to  impugn 
the  justice  of  the  holy  council,  or  of  his  majesty,  in  relation  to  their 
proceedings  with  John  Huss,  shall  be  punished,  without  hope  of  par- 
don, as  a  favourer  of  heretical  pravity,  and  guilty  of  the  crime  of  high- 
treason.* 

•  Though  I  have  nearly  translated  the  language  of  the  holy  council,  as  given  by  L'Enfant  in  his 
History  of  the  Council  of  Constance,  the  readi-r  will  probably  not  he  displeased  to  see  the  original. 

"  I'rsBsens  sancta  synodus  ex  quovis  salvo-conduclu  per  iniperaloretri,  reges,  et  alios'seculi 
principes  hierelicis  vel  de  liieresi  diflUinatis,  putantes  cosdein  sic  a  suis  erroribus  revocare,  quo- 
cunque  vinculo  se  adstrinxerint,  conccsso,  nullum  fldei  calholic;i!  vel  jurisdictioni  ecclesiastics 
pnejudicium  generari,  vel  impedimentum  praestari  posse  seudebere,  declaral  ;  quominus  salvo  dicto 
conductu  nouobstante,  liceat  judici  conipclciui  ecclesiaslico  de  ejusinodi  personarum  orroribus 
inqiiirerc,  et  alids  contra  eas  debile  procedere,  easdemque  puiiire,  quantum  justitia  suadebit,  si  snos 
pertiiiaciter  recusaverint  revocare  errores,  etiamsi  de  salvo-conductu  confisi  ad  locum  venermt 
judicii,  alias  non  venturi. 

"  t^uo  statuto,  sive  ordinalione  leclo,  idem  statutum  fuit  approbatum  per  dicios  dominos,  episcopos 
nomine  quatuor  nationum,  ac  lleverendissimum  I'atrom  Uonunum  Cardinalem  Vivarienscm,  nomine 
CoUegii  Cardinalium,  per  verbum.  Placet. 

"  DK    SALVO-CONDUCTt;   Hl'SSONIS. 

"  Sacrosancta,  &,c.  Quia  nonnuUi  iiimis  intelligentesaut  sinistriB  intentionis,  vel  forsan  solentes 
sapere  plus  quimoportet,  nedum  regiic  majestali,  sed  eriam  sacro,  ul  fertur,  concilio,  Unguis  iiialedictis 
detrahunt  public^  et  occnlte  <licenles,  vel  innuentes,  quod  salvus-conduclus  per  inviciissimum 
principem  Dominum  Sigismundum  Roniaiiorum  et  Ungaria:,  Slc,  Kegem  quondam  Johanni  Hus, 
lieresiarchiB  danmats  memoriaj  datus,  fuit  contra  justitiaiii  aut  honestatem  indebil<>  violatus  : 
cumtairien  dictus  Johannes  Hus  fidem  orlhodoxam  perlinaciler  impugiians  se  ab  omiii  conductu  et 
privilegio  reddiderit  alienum,  nee  aliqua  sibi  fides  aut  promissio,  de  jure  naturali,  divino,  vel  humano, 
ftierit  in  pnejudicium  Catholicie  fidei  observanda  :  idcirco  dicta  sancta  synodus  priesenlium  tenore 
declarat:  dictum  invictissimuin  principem  circa  pra^dictum  quondam  Johannem  Hus,  nonobstante 
memorato  salvo-conductu,  ex  juris  debito  focisse  quml  licuil,  el  ()Uod  decuit  regiam  niajestalem  : 
Btatuens  et  ordinans  omnibus  et  singulis  Christi  fidclibus,  cujuscunque  dignitatis,  gradus,  priS' 


362  FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  decision  of  a  general  council,  that  a  dissent 
from  the  Catholic  faith,  persisted  in,  exposes  the  offender  to  the  for- 
feiture of  all  his  rights,  not  excepting  such  as  he  may  claim  from 
express  solemn  stipulations.  If  there  ever  was  an  assembly  fairly 
entitled  to  the  epithet  of  oecumenical,  or  universal,  it  was  certainly  the 
Council  of  Constance ;  composed  of  delegates  from  every  kingdom 
and  country  of  Europe ;  held  in  the  presence  of  an  emperor,  and 
many  other  sovereign  princes  ;  called  by  the  order  of  a  pope,  and 
signalized  by  the  absolute  deposition  of  two  pontiffs,  a  forced  abdica- 
tion of  a  third,  and  the  creation  of  a  fourth ;  which  extinguished  a 
schism  of  forty  years,  and  reunited  the  obedience  of  Christendom 
under  one  head.  If  the  boasted  infallibility  of  the  church  is  to  be 
found  anywhere,  it  is  undoubtedly  in  the  acts  and  decrees  of  such  an 
assembly. 

Nor  is  it  easy  to  conceive  of  any  thing  more  absurd  than  the  sup- 
position that  it  was  guided  by  inspiration  in  respect  to  some  of  its 
decisions,  and  not  of  others.  Such  a  partial  and  capricious  inspiration 
would  completely  frustrate  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  introduced, 
and  expose  us  to  all  the  perplexity  and  uncertainty  which  it  was  de- 
signed to  prevent ;  since,  on  this  supposition,  nothing  short  of  another 
inspiration  could  enable  us  to  distinguish  and  select  the  suggestions  of 
the  first. 

I  am  aware,  that  when  Catholics  are  pressed  with  the  consequences 
resulting  from  the  pretended  infallibility  of  general  councils,  summoned 
by  the  authority  of  the  pope,  they  take  refuge  in  the  subtile  and  slip- 
pery distinction  between  the  doctrines  which  are,  and  those  which  are 
not,  points  of  faith.  Thus,  in  the  present  instance,  to  serve  a  turn, 
they  will  probably  assert,  or  insinuate,  that  although  the  most  cruel 
intolerance  has  obtained  the  sanction  and  support  of  general  councils, 
their  proper  infallibility  is  not  impaired,  because  the  principle  which 
authorizes  persecution  is  not  ^  point  of  faith. 

Without  entering  into  the  mazes  of  a  frivolous  and  unintelligible 
dispute  about  words,  it  is  sufficient  to  remark,  that  the  supernatural 
and  infallible  guidance  of  a  church  which  leaves  it  to  stumble  on  the 
threshold  of  morality,  to  confound  the  essential  distinctions  of  right  and 
wrong,  to  recommend  the  violation  of  the  most  solemn  compacts,  and 
the  murder  of  men  against  whom  not  a  shadow  of  criminality  is  alleged, 
except  a  dissent  from  its  dogmas,  is  nothing  worth ;  but  must  ever 
ensure  the  ridicule  and  abhorrence  of  those  who  judge  the  tree  by  its 
fruits,  and  who  will  not  be  easily  persuaded  that  the  eternal  fountain 
of  love  and  purity  inhabits  the  breast  which  "  breathes  out  cruelty  and 
slaughter."  If  persecution  for  conscience'  sake  is  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  justice  and  the  genius  of  Christianity,  then  I  say,  this  holy 
and  infallible  church  was  so  abandoned  of  God  as  to  be  permitted  to 
legitimate  the  foulest  crimes, — to  substitute  murders  for  sacrifice,  and 

eminentiae,  conditionis,  status,  aut  eexus  existant,  quod  nullus  deinceps  sacro  concilio  aut  regUe 
majestah  de  gestis  circa  prsedictum  quondam  Johannem  Hus  detrahat.  sivequomodolibet  obloquatiir. 
Qui  verd  contrarium  lecerit,  tamquam  fautor  hereticae  pravitatis  et  reus  criminis  laesee  majestatis 
irremissibiliter  puniatur." — L'En/anVs  History  of  the  Council  of  Constance,  vol.  ii.  p.  491,  English 
edit.  1730. 


FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY.  363 

to  betray  a  total  ignorance  of  the  precepts  and  spirit  of  the  religion 
whicli  she  professed  to  support ;  and  whether  the  Holy  Ghost  conde- 
scended at  the  same  moment  to  illuminate  one  hemisphere  of  minds  so 
hardened,  and  hearts  so  darkened,  may  be  safely  left  to  the  judgment 
of  common  sense.* 

It  would  give  us  unfeigned  pleasure  to  find  that  the  Catholics  have 
m  good  earnest  renounced  the  intolerant  principles  of  their  predecessors ; 
but  when  we  look  around  for  some  proof  of  this,  we  see  nothing  that 
is  satisfactory.  In  the  midst  of  much  courtesy,  much  urbanity  and 
address,  we  meet  with  nothing  that  partakes  of  the  nature  of  solid 
concession  ; — no  steps  retraced,  no  errors  revoked,  no  protest  opposed 
to  the  persecuting  maxims  of  former  times.  Whatever  breathes  an  air 
of  liberality  issues  from  the  unofficial  communications  of  private  indi- 
viduals. We  anxiously  wish  for  some  important  concessions  at  the 
fountain-head, — some  exposition  of  the  Catholic  faith  from  the  supreme 
ponlifl",  or  his  accredited  agents,  calculated  to  satisfy  us  that  intolerance 
is  at  last  expunged  from  the  papal  creed.  We  wish,  but  we  wish  in 
vain.  On  the  contrary,  we  perceive  in  the  restoration  of  the  Jesuits, — 
in  the  total  suppression  (as  far  as  his  [the  pope's]  influence  extends) 
of  Bible  societies, — in  his  opposition  to  the  toleration  established  in 
Belgium, — in  the  exclusion  of  the  Protestant  religion  from  Spain  and 
Portugal,  at  the  very  moment  they  were  indebted  for  their  existence  to 
the  arms  of  Protestants, — decisive  evidence  of  a  determination  to  main- 
tain the  ancient  system  with  inflexible  rigour.  We  are  at  a  loss  to 
discover  a  single  concession  in  favour  of  the  claims  of  conscience, 
proceeding  from  an  authority  which  Catholics  are  bound  to  respect. 
The  renunciation  of  the  rights  of  the  pope  to  interfere  in  temporal 
matters,  and  the  inviolable  obligation  of  oaths  taken  to  heretics,  will  be 
considered  perhaps,  by  some,  as  important  concessions ;  but  they  are 
far  from  settling  the  question.  What  security  have  we  that  the  per- 
secuting maxims  of  popery  are  revoked,  or  that  the  consciences  of  its 
adherents  are  not  still  instructed  in  the  indispensable  duty  of  demanding 
the  interference  of  the  magistrate  in  the  suppression  and  punishment 
of  heresy  1 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Catholic  system  is  the  supposed 
infallibility  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Until  this  point  is  determined,  it 
is  to  little  purpose  to  engage  in  particular  controversies,  or  attempt  to 
expose  the  erroneousness  of  her  doctrines,  or  the  idolatry  of  her  wor- 
ship.    These  are  merely  a  superstructure  erected  without  foundation. 

As  it  is  the  design  of  the  following  pages  to  furnish  a  pojudar  antidote 
to  the  seductions  of  her  priests  and  advocates,  it  becomes  indispensably 
necessary  to  examine  the  pleas  by  which  her  pretension  to  infallibility 
is  attempted  to  be  supported.  This  is  the  more  requisite,  because 
there  is  reason  to  fear  that  multitudes  of  Protestants  are  in  a  great 
measure  ignorant  of  the  true  grounds  of  popery ;  and  that  while  they 

•  Shortly  after  the  execution  of  Huss,  a  letter  written  to  the  council,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  was  Ibund  at  the  gates  of  some  of  the  churches  at  Constance,  to  this  effect :  "  The  Holy 
fipirit  to  the  Council  of  Constance,  greeting.  Take  care  of  your  own  affairs  as  well  as  you  cau. 
For  our  part  w«  cannot  bo  with  you ;  for  we  are  busy  about  other  alTairs ;  farewell." — Ed. 


364  FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY. 

strongly  reprobate  in  detail  its  errors  and  absurdities,  having  little  or 
no  acquaintance  with  the  principle  Avhich  forms  the  keystone  of  the 
whole  system,  they  are  easily  liable  to  be  baffled  and  confounded  when 
they  encounter  a  subtle  disputant.  It  will  be  in  vain  for  you  to  urge, 
in  debating  with  a  Catholic,  the  absurdity  of  transubstantiation,  or  the 
idolatry  of  the  mass.  You  begin  the  controversy  at  the  wrong  end ; 
and,  though  you  accumulate  ever  so  large  a  pile  of  invincible  argu- 
ment, or  Scriptural  proof,  you  make  no  progress.  He  will  [seldom, 
if  ever,]  descend  to  meet  you  on  that  ground  ;  he  professes  to  prostrate 
both  his  reason  and  his  faith  before  the  majesty  of  the  church.  In  the 
mysteries  of  faith  the  dictates  of  reason  are  fallacious,  the  interpretation 
of  the  Scriptures  is  precarious  and  uncertain,  and  no  basis  of  a  divine 
and  supernatural  faith  can  be  laid,  but  in  submission  to  an  authorized 
infallible  guide, — which  guide  is  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  !  You 
will  be  reminded  of  the  innumerable  sects  and  schisms,  convulsions 
and  disorders,  which  have  sprung  from  the  exercise  of  a  pretended 
free  inquiry ;  whence  he  will  infer  the  necessity  of  some  visible  stand- 
ard of  appeal,  some  acknowledged  infallible  judge :  and  the  promise 
of  the  Spirit  to  the  apostles  to  lead  them  into  all  truth, — together  with 
the  pre-eminence  of  Peter  above  his  colleagues,  to  whom,  as  an 
immoveable  rock  and  foundation  of  the  church,  "the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven"  were  exclusively  assigned, — will  be  triumphantly  urged  to 
support  die  claims  of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  his  legitimate  representative 
and  successor.  Thus,  by  a  mixture  of  specious  probabilities,  with  the 
ass-umption  of  innumerable  facts,  a  web  of  sophistry  will  be  weaved 
sufficient  often  to  entangle  the  "  unlearned  and  unstable."  That  it  is 
nothing  more,  however,  than  unfounded  and  presumptuous  sophistry,  a 
little  attention  will  enable  us  to  perceive. 

That  the  church  is  infallible  is  not  a  self-evident  proposition ;  it  is 
not  one  of  those  truths  which  are  acknowledged  the  moment  they  are 
announced,  like  the  assertion  that  two  and  two  are  four.  It  must 
therefore  be  proved :  nor  can  it  be  proved  by  her  own  assertion ; 
because  it  is  just  as  easy  for  any  other  community  to  declare  itself 
infallible  as  for  the  Church  of  Rome.  To  allow  her  a  prerogative  so 
extraordinary  merely  because  she  claims  it  would  legitimate  the  boldest 
imposture.  As  little  can  it  be  proved  by  any  appeal  to  the  principles 
of  reason  :  the  possession  of  infallibility  by  an  individual,  or  by  a  num- 
ber of  individuals,  is  a  matter  of  fact  whose  truth  must  be  evinced  in 
the  same  manner  as  other  facts.  Hence  it  necessarily  follows,  that 
the  pretensions  to  hifallibility  assumed  by  the  Catholic  church  must 
solely  rest  on  the  testimony  of  Scripture.  For  this  purpose  it  is  alleged 
that  St.  Peter  was  constituted  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  the  foundation 
on  which  the  church  was  to  be  built ;  that  to  him  were  primarily  and 
chiefly  given  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  that  as  Jesus  Christ 
prayed  for  him  that  his  faith  should  not  fail,  he  possessed  a  guarantee 
for  the  truth  of  his  doctrines  and  the  infallibility  of  his  decisions ; 
and  that,  having  established  his  episcopal  throne  at  Rome,  he  trans- 
mitted his  immunities  and  prerogatives  unimpaired  to  his  successors  in 
that  see. 


FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY.  305 

Such,  for  substance,  is  the  argument  deduced  from  Scripture  in  support 
of  this  extraordinary  pretension.  To  this  are  added  otlier  considera- 
tions of  the  nature  of  probabilities,  in  favour  of  this  assumed  infallibility: 
such  as  the  pretended  necessity  of  some  living  standard  of  appeal,  some 
visible  judge  of  controversies,  together  with  the  error,  confusion,  and 
uncertainty  to  which  it  is  asserted  the  church  must  be  for  ever  aban- 
doned, in  the  absence  of  some  such  living  oracle.  If  Christians  are 
left  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  for  themselves  without  an  infallible 
guidance,  their  interpretations  will  necessarily  vary  in  proportion  to 
the  different  degrees  of  their  capacity  or  attention.  Their  interpretation 
can  at  best  be  but  probable ;  and  a  probable  conclusion  can  never  be 
admitted  as  the  ground  of  a  divine  faith.  It  will  not  be  at  all  neces- 
sary to  discuss  accurately  at  large  the  arguments  founded  on  the 
passages  of  Scripture  before  adduced.  Suffice  it  to  observe,  that  the 
links  which  compose  the  chain  of  the  argument  are  numerous,  and  that 
it  would  not  be  easy  to  prove  any  one  of  them  to  the  satisfaction  of  an 
unprejudiced  mquirer.  In  that  argument  it  is  assumed  for  granted 
that  St.  Peter  was  invested  with  a  supremacy  over  the  rest  of  the 
apostles ;  that  the  keys  were  exclusively  given  to  him ;  that  his  faith 
was  more  indefectible  than  that  of  his  brethren ;  that  he  exercised  the 
episcopal  office  at  Rome  ;  and  that  he  devolved  his  peculiar  power  and 
prerogatives  on  his  successors  in  that  sacred  office.  Every  one  of 
these  arbitrary  assumptions  is  destitute  of  a  shadow  of  truth,  either 
from  Scripture  or  antiquity.  That  Peter  was  ever  at  Rome  we  have 
no  evidence  but  vague  and  uncertain  tradition ;  that  he  exercised  the 
episcopal  functions  there  is  still  more  uncertain,  or  rather  extremely 
improbable,  as  it  is  neither  insinuated  in  Scripture  nor  very  consistent 
with  his  higher  character  and  functions.  But  supposing  both  these 
pomts  were  conceded,  what  evidence  have  we  of  that  devolution  of  his 
power  and  prerogatives  on  his  successors  on  which  the  authority 
assumed  by  the  bishop  of  Rome  entirely  rests  ?  From  the  language 
of  Scripture  and  the  [testimony]  of  antiquity,  there  is  much  more  reason 
for  affirming  that  James  the  Less  was  bishop  of  the  Church  of  Jerusa- 
lem, ihan  that  Peter  sustained  that  office  at  Rome ;  and  by  a  parity  of 
reason,  his  successors  must  be  supposed  to  have  inherited  his  powers 
and  his  infallibility ;  and  the  rather,  since  the  church  at  Jerusalem 
was  the  mother  of  all  other  churches,  planted,  not  by  one,  but  by  all 
the  apostles,  often  dignified  by  their  united  presence, — a  church  on 
which  the  redundance  of  spiritual  gifts  was  first  poured,  and  consecrated 
by  the  blood  of  the  first  martyr.  If,  in  opposition  to  this,  we  are 
reminded  that  the  succeeding  bishops  of  Jerusalem  derived  from  St. 
James  the  rights  attached  to  the  episcopal  function,  but  not  his  personal 
prerogatives  and  immunities  as  an  apostle, — this  very  distinction  applies 
precisely  to  the  successors  of  St.  Peter. 

This  may  suffice  to  show  the  extreme  frivolity  and  levity  of  the 
proofs  adduced  from  Scripture  in  support  of  tlie  claim  of  papal  or 
Catholic  infallibility.  But,  admitting  the  arguments  derived  from  this 
quarter  were  much  more  cogent  than  they  are,  it  is  evident  that  they 
are  entirely  deduced  from  the  interpretation  of  certain  passages  of 


366  FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY. 

Scripture,  and  consequently  depend  on  the  correctness  of  that  inter- 
pretation. Is  this  interpretation,  I  would  ask,  to  be  taken  for  granted, 
or  is  it  to  be  proved  and  sustained  by  the  principles  of  sound  criticism  1 
Are  we  to  take  the  mere  affirmation  of  the  Church  of  Rome  on  this 
subject,  and  at  once  admit  that  the  inference  she  deduces  from  these 
passages  is  just  because  she  asserts  it  to  be  so  ?  This  is  impossible, 
because  this  would  [be  to]  acknowledge  her  infallibility,  which  is  the 
very  point  to  be  proved.  We  are  inquiring  after  the  proofs  of  her 
infallibility :  she  refers  us  for  satisfaction  to  the  passages  of  Scripture 
before  adduced.  Her  supposed  infallibility  can  afford  no  sort  of 
security  for  her  correct  interpretation  of  these  passages,  because  her 
object  in  urging  these  passages  is  to  prove  her  infallibility.  To  say 
that  she  has  put  a  right  construction  on  these  texts  because  she  is 
infallible,  and  at  the  same  time  attempt  to  prove  her  infallibility  by  that 
construction,  would  be  an  insult  to  common  sense.  Her  right  to  be 
acknowledged  as  the  infallible  guide  and  director  of  our  faith,  must 
either  be  blindly  submitted  to  without  proof  or  inquiry,  or  it  must  be 
left  to  be  determined  by  the  private  judgment  of  every  individual ;  and 
if  the  votaries  of  the  Church  of  Rome  are  not  willing  to  confess  they 
admit  the  validity  of  her  claims  without  any  reasons  whatever,  they 
must  have  exercised  the  right  of  free  inquiry  as  well  as  Protestants, 
not  indeed  in  respect  to  particular  controversies,  but  in  relation  to  this 
great  controversy.  What  is  the  standard  of  truth,  and  Mdio  is  the  judge 
of  controversy  ?  The  Church  of  Rome  boldly  affirms,  that  if  individuals 
are  left  to  judge  for  themselves,  such  is  the  obscurity  of  Scripture,  that 
no  certainty  could  be  obtained,  no  conclusion  deduced,  in  which  the 
conscience  may  safely  rest.  Yet,  with  egregious  inconsistency,  she 
refers  us  to  that  very  Scripture  in  proof  of  the  justice  of  her  claims. 
Here  I  would  ask,  can  we  without  an  infallible  guide  attain  the  real 
meaning  of  the  texts  which  she  quotes  in  her  favour  ?  If  not,  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  prove  her  infallibility.  If  we  can,  then  it  follows 
that  there  are  some  parts  of  Scripture  whose  meaning  may  be  certainly 
ascertained  without  her  infallible  guidance.  And  what  then  becomes 
of  her  complaint  of  the  hopeless  obscurity  of  Scripture,  which  is  affirmed 
to  render  her  aid  so  indispensable  ?  And  what  must  we  think  of  her 
outcries  against  the  supposed  arrogance  of  pretending  to  the  exercise 
of  free  inquiry,  and  of  judging  of  the  Scriptures  for  ourselves,  when,  with- 
out such  an  exercise  and  such  a  power  of  judging,  it  is  found  impossible 
to  obtain  the  least  proof  or  presumption  of  her  boasted  infallibility  ? 

Some  parts  of  Scripture,  then,  tlie  Church  of  Rome  herself  must 
allow,  are  capable  of  being  understood  without  her  aid.  Those  decla- 
rations of  Scripture  on  which  she  rests  her  claim  to  implicit  submission 
and  obedience,  she  must  allow  to  be  sufficiently  plain  and  intelligible, 
to  bind  the  conscience  of  every  member  of  her  community  who  is 
prepared  to  assign  a  reason  for  his  being  a  Catholic :  and  as  an  entire 
agreement  with  the  dogmas  of  the  church  is  all  the  faith  which  she 
requires  in  order  to  the  salvation  of  her  members,  she  must  acknowledge, 
as  well  as  ourselves,  that  the  Scriptures  contain  a  rule  of  faith  sufficient 
for  the  purpose  of  salvation  ;  the  only  difference  is,  that  in  our  opinion 


FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY.  357 

the  Scripture  clearly  unfolds  a  system  of  saving  truth,  wliile  in  [that 
of  the  Roman  Catholics]  they  are  obscure  in  every  point,  except  in  the 
few  passages  which  direct  us  to  the  church,  the  only  authentic  and 
immediate  source  of  saving  knowledge. 

We  ascribe  some  efficacy  to  the  word  of  God  itself ;  while  they 
contend  that  the  principal  or  only  benefit  it  affords  consists  in  con- 
ducting us  to  the  church.  The  Scriptures  themselves  indeed  affirm, 
that  they  are  "  able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salvation,"  and  by  them 
"  we  must  be  judged  at  the  last  day."  The  church  asserts,  on  the 
contrary,  that  they  are  covered  with  an  impenetrable  obscurity,  [not  to 
be  removed]  without  her  interference,  and  that  we  shall  be  judged  at 
the  last  day,  not  by  our  submission  to  the  Scriptures,  but  our  obedience 
to  her.  In  her  system  the  principal  use  of  the  Scriptures  was  to  give 
birth  to  the  church,  whose  place  she  now  occupies,  whose  prerogatives 
she  assumes  as  the  sole  directory  of  conscience,  and  the  living  oracle 
of  God.  Her  treatment  of  the  Scripture  almost  reminds  us  of  the 
fabulous  history  of  Jupiter,  who  ascended  to  supreme  [power]  by  the 
mutilation  and  banishment  of  his  father. 

The  portentous  doctrine  of  infallibility,  as  it  is  employed  in  the 
Catholic  church,  stamps  an  entirely  new  character  on  the  Christian 
religion,  substitutes  a  new  object  of  fiiith  and  dependence,  deifies  what 
is  human,  hides  and  cancels  what  is  divine,  and  transfers  our  allegiance 
from  God  to  mortals. 

But  to  return  to  the  argument.  On  all  systems,  the  preference  of 
one  religion  to  another  must  either  be  founded  on  caprice,  custom,  or 
some  other  principle  equally  unworthy  of  determining  the  choice  of  a 
reasonable  being,  or  upon  examination.  If  the  Catholics  wish  to 
convert  us  to  their  persuasion,  they  must  assign  their  reasons  for 
affirming  that  there  is  in  existence  an  infallible  community,  styling 
itself  the  church ;  that  that  community  is  their  church,  in  preference 
to  the  Greek  church,  the  Armenian,  or  the  Nestorian.  Here  they 
must  admit  the  exercise  of  private  judgment  in  examining  these  reasons  ; 
unless  they  have  the  effrontery  to  assert  that  their  bare  affirmation 
supersedes  the  necessity  of  any  further  proof:  and,  admitting  the 
Scriptures  to  be  the  word  of  God,  which  is  the  easiest  task  for  ordinary 
Christians — to  learn  from  them  what  is  necessary  for  salvation,  or  to 
judge  of  the  claims  of  the  church  to  supremacy  and  infallibility  ?  For 
tlie  former,  if  you  believe  the  Scriptures  themselves,  nothing  more  is 
requisite  than  a  candid  and  honest  mind ;  for  the  latter,  a  deep  ac- 
quaintance with  history  and  antiquity,  and,  particularly,  a  clear  compre- 
hension of  the  meaning  of  a  portion  of  Scripture  by  no  means  the  most 
plain  and  perspicuous.  Involved  as  those  passages  are  which  are 
urged  from  tlie  New  Testament  in  support  of  tlie  papal  claims,  in 
language  highly  figurative  and  metaphorical,  is  it  easier  for  a  plain 
unlettered  Christian  to  judge  of  the  precise  meaning  of  the  term  "  keys," 
and  "  tiie  kingdom  of  heaven  opening  and  shutting,"  than  to  learn  the 
import  of  that  declaration,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
thou  shult  be  saved  V  There  is  so  much  room  for  variation  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  passages   [on  which  the  papists  lay  such  great 


868  FRAGMENT  ON  POPERY. 

stress,]  that  it  would  not  be  easy  to  find  two  commentators,  in  any 
community,  whose  expositions  perfectly  coincide ;  with  respect  to  the 
latter,  he  that  runs  may  read.  St.  John  distinctly  informs  us  with  what 
purpose  he  wrote  his  gospel,  in  the  following  words :  "  And  many 
other  signs  truly  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples,  which  are 
not  written  in  this  book ;  but  these  are  written  that  ye  might  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  and  that,  believing,  ye  might  have  life  through 
his  name."  Is  there  sufficient  evidence  in  what  St.  John  wrote  to 
convince  us  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ ;  and  is  it  within  the  power  of 
ordinary  men  to  judge  of  this  evidence  ?  If  this  question  be  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  then  what  occasion  is  there  for  the  interposition 
of  an  infallible  interpreter,  since  he  who  is  convinced  by  this  record 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  already  in  a  state  of  salvation  ?  If  it  be 
replied  in  the  negative,  that  the  writing  of  St.  John  is  not  sufficient  to 
prove  to  an  impartial  reader  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  it  must  be  confessed, 
however  reluctantly,  that  the  beloved  apostle  was  a  most  impertinent 
and  fallacious  writer,  in  representing  his  performance  as  a  fit  instrument 
for  the  accomplishment  of  an  object  to  which  it  is  not  adequate. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE   REV.  R.  HALL, 

OF  ARNSBY. 

[Wrilten  i«  1791.*] 


The  distinguished  talents  of  our  deceased  friend  will  long  live  in 
the  remembrance  of  all  who  knew  him.  His  advantages  of  education 
were  extremely  small ;  but  possessing  from  his  infancy  a  contemplative 
cast  of  mind,  and  a  habit  of  patient  thinking,  he  laid  in  a  large  stock 
of  useful  knowledge.  In  the  character  of  a  minister  of  the  gospel, 
there  have  been  but  few  more  generally  esteemed.  Attentive  only  to 
the  improvement  of  his  hearers,  he  forgot  himself,  and  appeared  en- 
tirely absorbed  in  his  subject.  Though  he  was  unacquainted  with  the 
graces  of  oratory  and  the  embellishments  of  language,  scarcely  any 
man  spoke  with  a  more  striking  and  visible  effect.  From  nature  he 
derived  a  large  share  of  sensibility ;  and  as  he  excelled  at  the  same 
time  in  taking  a  profound  and  comprehensive  view  of  a  subject,  the 
understanding  and  affections  of  his  hearers  were  equally  interested  in 
his  discourses,  which  generally  flowed  in  a  stream  of  argument  and 
pathos.  From  a  natural  diffidence  of  temper,  heightened  by  a  conscious- 
ness of  his  want  of  education,  he  often  ascended  the  pulpit  with  tremor; 
but  as  soon  as  this  subsided,  he  generally  led  his  hearers,  step  by  step, 
into  a  large  field  of  serious  and  manly  thuiking,  kindled  as  he  advanced, 
and  expatiated  with  increasing  energy  and  conviction  till  the  subject 
was  exhausted.  His  eminent  piety  lent  a  peculiar  unction  to  the 
sentiments  he  delivered,  led  him  to  seize  the  most  interesting  views 
of  every  subject,  and  turned  topics,  which  in  the  hands  of  others  would 
have  furnished  barren  speculation  only,  into  materials  for  devotion  and 
prayer.  He  appeared  to  the  greatest  advantage  upon  subjects  where 
the  faculties  of  most  men  fail  them  ;  for  the  natural  element  of  his 
mind  was  greatness.  At  times  he  seemed  to  labour  with  conceptions 
too  big  for  his  utterance ;  and  if  an  obscurity  ever  pervaded  his 
discourses,  it  must  be  traced  to  this  source — the  disproportion  of  his 
language  to  the  vastness  of  his  conceptions.  He  had  great  force 
without  ornament,  and  grandeur  without  correctness.  His  ministry, 
in  the  hands  of  God,  was  effectual  to  the  conversion  of  great  numbers  ; 
and  in    this    particular  he  was  distinguished  in  a  manner  not  very 

*  This  sketch  was  published  anonymously,  at  the  end  of  Dr.  Ryland's  ftineral  sermou  for  Mr. 
Hall,  of  Arnsby.— Ed. 

Vol.  n.— A  a 


370  CHARACTER  OF  THE  REV.  R.  HALL. 

common  ;  for  the  last  years  of  his  life  were  the  most  successful.  But 
it  was  not  only  in  the  pulpit  that  he  shone ;  in  his  private  sphere  of 
action  as  a  Christian,  his  virtues  were  not  less  distinguished  than  his 
talents  as  a  minister.  Deep  devotion  and  unaffected  humility  entered 
far  into  this  part  of  his  character.  Few  men  have  passed  through 
greater  vicissitudes  of  life  than  the  deceased,  and  perhaps  in  each 
of  them  no  man  preserved  with  a  more  inviolable  consistency  the 
character  of  a  Christian.  He  was  very  early  introduced  into  the 
schools  of  aflliction,  and  the  greater  part  of  his  subsequent  life  was 
distinguished  by  an  uncommon  succession  of  trials  and  distresses. 
On  his  first  entrance  into  the  ministry  his  fortitude  was  exercised  in  a 
scene  of  persecution  and  reproaches,  which  lasted  for  many  years. 
His  worldly  prospects  at  the  same  time  were  gloomy  and  precarious 
in  a  high  degree :  he  had  a  very  numerous  family,  and  an  income 
extremely  limited. — He  united  great  susceptibility  of  heart  with  firmness 
of  mind  ;  and,  endowed  with  these  dispositions,  he  met  reproaches  with 
gentleness,  sustained  adversity  with  fortitude,  and  pains  and  sorrows 
of  various  kinds  with  exemplary  patience.  In  the  habitual  frame  of  his 
spirit  he  "  walked  with  God."  The  consolations  that  supported  him 
through  life  awaited  him  at  death  ;  for  so  tranquil  were  his  last  moments, 
so  completely  was  he  reconciled  to  the  prospect  of  both  worlds,  that 
he  declared,  a  little  time  before  he  expired,  he  mould  not  give  a  straw  to 
live  or  die.  From  his  first  acquaintance  with  religion  to  the  close 
of  life,  he  was  never  known  to  express  the  least  hesitation  respecting 
his  state,  but  enjoyed  an  uninterrupted  assurance  of  a  happy  immor- 
tality. His  conversation  breathed  so  much  of  heaven,  was  so  tinctured 
with  the  very  spirit  of  religion,  that  none  could  enjoy  it  without  an 
opportunity  of  being  made  better.  It  was  evident  to  all  who  knew  him, 
that  his  religion  was  not  a  transient  impression,  but  a  permanent 
principle ;  that  it  blended  itself  with  all  his  feelings  and  his  actions ; 
and  that  it  raised  his  thoughts,  his  views,  and  his  passions  towards 
heaven. 

In  the  first  years  of  his  ministry  he  encountered,  as  has  been  already 
remarked,  much  persecution  and  reproach  ;  but  at  length  his  exemplary 
conduct  dissipated  these  prejudices,  and  gained  him  so  completely  the 
esteem  of  all  classes  of  mankind,  that  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  had 
an  enemy  in  the  world  :  certainly  he  had  none  but  those  whom  his  piety 
made  such.  He  was  distinguished  as  alover  of  peace,  and  was  as  anxious 
to  heal  breaches  as  he  was  cautious  to  avoid  them.  With  some,  his 
extreme  solicitude  for  the  propagation  of  evangelical  sentiments  might 
seem  like  bigotry  :  but  those  who  knew  him  best  were  well  convinced 
that  this  was  no  part  of  his  character,  and  that  he  regarded  sentiments 
in  no  other  light,  nor  cherished  them  in  any  higher  degree,  than  as  he 
conceived  them  favourable  to  the  interests  of  holiness  and  virtue. 

His  brethren  in  the  ministry  will  long  and  deeply  lament  him  ;  for 
to  them  his  talents  and  dispositions  peculiarly  endeared  him.  How 
many  private  circles  hath  he  cheered  and  enlightened  by  his  presence ! 
In  how  many  public  solemnities  hath  he  lifted  up  an  ensign  to  the 
people,  invited  them  to  the  standard  of  the  Cross,  and  warmed  and 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  REV.  R.  HALL.  371 

exalted  their  affections,  while  "his  doctrine  dropped  as  rain,  and  his 
speech  distilled  as  the  dew !"  Great  abilities  are  often  allied  to  pride, 
out  the  character  of  the  deceased  was  an  illustrious  exception  to  this 
rule.  His  talents  and  virtues  were  in  some  measure  concealed  from 
the  world,  and  almost  entirely  from  himself,  by  a  veil  of  the  most 
unaffected  modesty.  He  was  never  so  happy  as  when  he  was  per- 
mitted to  sit  in  the  shade,  though  the  high  opinion  entertained  of  his 
abilities  seldom  allowed  him  that  indulgence.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
conceive  a  human  mind  more  completely  purged  from  the  leaven  of 
pride  or  of  envy  than  was  that  of  our  deceased  friend.  In  this  parti- 
cular his  magnanimity  was  so  great  that  he  seemed  on  all  occasions 
desirous  of  sinking  the  recollection  of  himself  in  the  reputation  and 
applause  of  his  contemporaries.  To  cultivate  the  seeds  of  reflection 
and  improvement  in  the  minds  of  his  inferiors, — to  behold  the  growing 
talents  and  virtues  of  his  brethren, — to  draw  merit  from  its  obscurity, 
and  give  confidence  to  timid  worth, — formed  some  of  the  highest  satis- 
factions of  his  life. 

His  temper  was  grave  and  contemplative,  yet  few  men  took  greater 
delight  in  Christian  society ;  and  on  these  occasions  he  seldom  failed 
to  mix  with  serious  converse  a  vein  of  pleasantry  and  humour,  in  which 
he  greatly  excelled.  From  his  integrity  and  knowledge,  it  may  be 
inferred  he  was  eminently  skilled  for  imparting  advice ;  yet  so  care- 
fully did  he  shun  every  inclination  to  dictate,  that  he  scarcely  ever 
gave  it  unsolicited.  His  sentiments,  when  required,  he  imparted  with 
tenderness  and  freedom ;  but  he  never  made  advice  a  disguise  for 
arrogance,  or  an  engine  of  rule,  nor  ever  presumed  to  think  himself 
affronted  if  his  counsels  were  not  followed.  In  his  whole  deport- 
ment, prudence  and  humility  were  conspicuous  ;  a  prudence,  however, 
that  was  candid  and  manly,  as  far  removed  from  art  as  his  humility 
was  from  meanness.  He  had  failings,  no  doubt,  (for  who  is  free  ?)  but 
they  were  scarcely  ever  suffered  to  influence  his  conduct,  or  to  throw 
even  a  transient  shade  over  the  splendour  of  his  character.  Upon  the 
whole,  if  a  strong  and  penetrating  genius,  simplicity  of  maimers, 
integrity  of  heart,  fidelity  in  i'riendsliip — and  all  these  virtues  conse- 
crated by  piety  the  most  ardent  and  sincere  on  the  high  altar  of  devotion 
— have  any  claim  to  respect,  the  memory  of  the  deceased  will  long  be 
cherished  with  tears  of  admiration  and  sorrow  by  those  who  knew 
him. 

Aa2 


FUNERAL  ORATION, 

Delivered  at  the  Interment  of  the  Rev.  Habakkuk  Crabb,  of  Royston, 
in  Hertfordshire,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1795.* 


A.MONG  the  many  appearances  which  man  presents  to  the  view  of  a 
contemplative  mind,  death  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinarj'.  Whatever 
be  the  station  he  has  filled,  and  however  he  has  conducted  himself  in 
it, — whether  he  has  adorned  it  by  virtue  or  degraded  it  by  vice, — 
whether  he  has  passed  obscurely  through  the  world,  or  filled  it  with 
the  fame  of  his  actions, — he  soon  disappears,  and  the  "  place  which 
once  knew  him  knows  him  no  more."  Over  all  the  sons  of  Adam 
death  hath  reigned.  The  worthy  and  beneficent  are  embalmed  by 
the  tears  of  tender  but  transient  regret.  The  chasm  their  departure 
has  occasioned  in  society  is  filled  up  by  their  successors,  who  tread 
the  same  circle  of  life  and  death,  and  thus  perpetuate  the  established 
order  of  the  universe. 

But  though  the  grave  terminates  the  business  of  life,  it  does  not 
terminate  the  inquiries  of  the  living.  Whether  the  whole  of  existence 
is  comprised  within  the  present  life,  or  whether  it  be  merely  a  passage 
into  an  unseen  state,  is  a  question  which  has  engaged  the  attention  of 
men  in  every  age  ;  nor  would  it  be  possible  (were  it  ever  so  proper) 
to  detail  within  the  limits  of  this  address  the  various  reasonings  and 
conjectures  to  which  it  has  given  occasion.  When  we  contemplate 
death  under  its  sensible  appearances — the  destruction  of  the  external 
organs,  and  the  corruption  of  the  whole  mass — we  are  tempted  to 
regard  it  as  the  extinction  of  being,  and  to  suppose  its  eflfects  upon  the 
human  race  are  the  same  as  upon  the  inferior  orders  of  creatures. 
Whatever  has  been  the  object  of  the  senses  in  both,  is  reduced 
to  putrefaction  and  dust.  But  when  again  we  recollect  in  how 
many  important  respects  we  are  distinguished  above  the  brutes, 
we  cannot  help  indulging  higher  expectations,  and  looking  for  a 
nobler  destiny.  Our  superior  comprehension  of  mind  qualifies  us 
for  a  longer  duration  of  being.  While  the  brute  is  capable  of 
enjoying  little  more  than  the  present  moment,  the  remembrance  of 
what  is  past,  and  the  anticipation  of  what  is  to  come,  enable  us  to 
multiply  our  resources,  and  to  diffuse  our  existence,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  over  a  larger  surface.  To  compare  one  state  of  being  with 
another,  to  learn  wisdom  from  experience,  and  to  regulate  our  future 
expectations  by  what  has  already  occurred,  are  employments  congenial 

*  This  first  appeared  in  the  Introduction  to  a  volume  of  Mr.  CrabVs  posthumous  Sermons,  ptjb- 
iished  in  1795.— Ed. 


FUNERAL  ORATION.  373 

with  the  human  mind.  But  it  is  evident  that  a  creature  possessed  of 
such  faculties  will  be  capable  of  continually  making  new  acquisitions 
of  knowledge,  and  of  advancing  nearer  and  nearer  to  perfection. 

Among  all  the  tribes  of  creatures  with  which  we  are  acquainted, 
man  is  the  only  one  that  appears  to  have  any  dread  of  annihilation,  or 
the  remotest  conception  of  another  state.  How  shall  we  account  for 
the  universal  prevalence  of  these  sentiments,  in  spite  of  all  the  sen- 
sible appearances  of  death,  unless  they  are  ehher  the  vestige  of  some 
early  revelation  or  the  hicorrupted  dictate  of  nature  ?  How  is  it  that 
we  are  the  only  beings  that  extend  their  anxieties  beyond  the  grave ; 
that  we  are  so  reluctant  to  quit  the  present  scene ;  and  that,  when  we 
are  at  length  compelled  to  depart,  we  grasp  at  the  very  shadow  of 
immortality,  and  console  ourselves  with  the  hope  of  survivhig  in  the 
regrets  of  our  friends  and  the  reputation  of  our  actions  ? 

Though  there  seems  to  be  much  plausibility  in  these  topics,  it  must 
be  confessed  the  best  arguments  for  a  future  state  are  derived  from 
the  moral  part  of  our  nature ;  or,  in  other  words,  from  our  capability 
of  good  and  ill  desert.  For  since  it  is  plain  that  God  has  made  us 
moral  agents,  and  placed  us  under  a  law,  we  may  be  assured  he  has 
not  made  us  so  in  vain,  but  that  he  will  call  us  to  an  account  for  our 
actions ;  and,  as  there  is  no  exact  distribution  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments in  this  life,  we  are  entitled  to  expect  another  suited  to  the 
respective  characters  of  men  and  the  moral  attributes  of  the  Deity. 
If,  after  all,  we  consider  actual  opinions  on  this  head,  we  shall  find 
the  wisest  among  the  heathen  were  far  from  attaining  any  certainty. 
When  they  gave  scope  to  their  feelings  and  their  hopes,  they  some- 
times painted  the  elysian  abodes  of  the  virtuous  in  the  warmest 
colouring  of  eloquence ;  in  their  cooler  moments  they  subsided  into 
skepticism ;  so  that,  on  the  whole,  the  idea  of  a  future  state  seems  to 
have  operated  not  so  much  as  a  fixed  principle  as  a  vague  presen- 
timent. 

Revelation  can  alone  boast  of  having  "  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light."  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  places  the  reality  of  a  future 
state  at  the  foundation  of  hs  truths.  It  is  there  so  constantly  reverted 
to,  so  often  repeated,  and  so  solemnly  enforced,  that  it  has  never  been 
by  any  class  of  Christians  disputed  or  denied.  Nor  is  the  reality 
only  of  a  future  state  revealed  in  Christianity :  as  far  as  is  consistent 
with  the  present  limitation  of  our  faculties,  it  affords  us  the  justest 
views  of  its  nature ;  which  it  makes  to  consist,  not  in  sensual  gratifi- 
cations or  festive  bowers — the  visions  of  a  Mahometan  paradise, — but 
in  enjoyments  the  most  suited  to  the  rational  and  immortal  mind ;  a 
union  with  God,  the  knowledge  of  his  perfections,  and  the  eternal 
fruition  of  his  love.  The  information  w-hich  Christianity  imparts  on 
these  subjects  is  not  conveyed  in  dark  and  symbolical  expressions,  or 
in  a  chain  of  philosophical  reasoning  ;  but  in  a  manner  the  most 
perspicuous  and  popular.  With  what  majestic  simplicity  does  our 
Lord  assure  us  of  the  resurrection  of  the  just ! — "  I  am  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life.  He  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet 
shall  he  live,  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  hi  me  shall  never 


374  FUNERAL  ORATION. 

die."  "  This  is  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me,  that  every  one  which 
believeth  on  the  Son  may  have  everlasting  life,  and  I  will  raise  him 
up  at  the  last  day."  When  many  of  the  disciples  of  our  Lord  went 
back,  and  walked  no  more  with  him,  being  oftended  with  the  sublime 
mysteries  of  his  doctrine,  he  took  occasion  to  ask  his  twelve  apostles, 
"  Will  ye  also  go  away  V  To  which  Peter,  in  the  name  of  them 
all,  made  this  reply,  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  1  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life."  In  this  short  answer  we  behold  the  distin- 
guished lustre  of  Christianity.  It  explains  at  once  the  ground  of  a 
rational  attachment  to  it,  and  will  be  sufficient  to  justify  its  profession 
from  the  reproach  of  folly,  however  mysterious  its  doctrines,  however 
arduous  its  duties,  and  however  painful  or  costly  its  sacrifices. 

There  are  two  purposes  connected  with  the  present  solemnity  to 
which  the  doctrine  of  immortality  ought  to  be  applied.  The  first 
regards  the  regulation  of  life ;  the  second,  the  inspiring  us  with 
fortitude  in  the  contemplation  of  our  own  deaths,  and  those  of  our 
relatives  and  friends.  If  we  consider  ourselves  as  candidates  for  an 
eternal  state  of  happiness,  it  becomes  us  to  regard  life,  with  all  its 
vicissitudes,  as  a  probationary  state,  and  to  look  upon  every  thing 
that  is  not  directly  or  indirecdy  conducive  to  our  eternal  welfare  as 
foreign  to  our  purpose,  and  undeserving  our  pursuit.  Heavenly- 
mindedness  is,  in  this  view,  as  much  the  dictate  of  reason  as  of 
Scripture.  It  is  nothing  more  than  the  placing  our  affections  where 
we  expect  our  felicity ;  the  wisdom  of  preferring  the  end  to  the  means 
— that  which  is  permanent  to  that  which  is  transitory.  Let  the  men 
of  the  world,  who  disbelieve  the  declarations  of  the  gospel  respecting 
eternal  realities,  lead  a  life,  if  they  please,  of  dissipation  and  vice ; 
but  for  a  professor  of  religion  to  confine  his  aflectious  to  the  earth  is 
equally  impious  and  absurd.  Distracted  between  his  inordinate  attach- 
ment to  the  present,  and  his  apprehension  of  a  future  world,  his 
religion,  if  it  will  bear  that  name,  must  be  a  constant  source  of 
disquietude.  He  has  neither  the  calmness  of  insensibility,  nor  the 
triumph  of  faith.  His  prevailing  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  present 
life  renders  it  impossible  for  him  to  set  his  affections  on  a  better  state ; 
while  the  carnal  and  reluctant  glances  he  is  compelled  to  take  of  that 
state  are  sufficient  to  imbitter  his  enjoyments  aiid  disturb  his  repose. 

The  misery  which  persons  of  this  description  sufler  from  an  inward 
conflict  between  principle  and  practice,  is  the  chief  reason  that  has 
induced  superficial  observers  to  represent  Christianity  as  a  gloomy, 
melancholy  system.  There  is  no  other  foundation  for  this  charge 
than  that  its  claims  are  grand  and  extensive  ;  that  it  disdains  a  compro- 
mise with  the  corrupt  attachments  of  the  heart ;  and  that  they  who  will 
not  allow  it  the  dominion  of  their  affections  will  find  it  the  troubler  of 
their  thoughts. 

Whoever  lives  under  the  habitual  influence  of  those  tempers  which 
qualify  us  for  heaven,  derives  from  his  view  of  the  eternal  world  the 
purest  serenity  and  delight.  In  the  midst  of  the  severest  disappoint- 
ments of  human  life,  secret  consolations  spring  up  in  his  mind,  which 
sonietiraes  swell  into  rapture,  disarm  the  world  of  its  terrors,  and  afford 


FUNERAL  ORATION.  375 

him  a  prelibation  of  unutterable  bliss.  In  vain  will  ye  look  elsewhere 
for  true  magnanimity  and  moral  grandeur.  It  is  religion  alone  which 
both  animates  and  softens  the  heart,  cherishes  sensibility,  instils  forti- 
tude, and  enables  us  to  triumph  without  extravagance,  and  to  suffer 
without  dejection. 

If  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  immortality  is  entitled  to  so  much  weight 
in  the  regulation  of  life,  its  influence  is  not  less  sovereign  in  dispel- 
ling the  terrors  of  death,  and  consoling  us  under  the  loss  of  our 
dearest  friends  and  relatives.  "I  would  not  have  you  be  ignorant, 
brethren,  concerning  them  which  are  asleep,  that  ye  sorrow  not  as 
others  who  have  no  hope;  for,  if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose 
again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with 
him.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout, 
with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  the  trump  of  God.  Then  we  which 
are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the 
clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air ;  so  shall  we  be  ever  with  the  Lord. 
Wherefore  comfort  one  another  with  these  words."  And  who  can  fail 
being  penetrated  with  the  divine  consolation  they  afford  1  If  ever 
Christianity  appears  in  its  power,  it  is  when  it  erects  its  trophies  on 
the  TOMB ;  when  it  takes  up  its  votaries  where  the  world  leaves  them, 
and  fills  the  breast  with  immortal  hope  in  dying  moments. 

Nor  are  the  words  I  have  quoted  adapted  to  support  the  mind  of  a 
Christian  in  the  view  of 'his  oum  dissolution  only ;  they  administer  the 
firmest  support  amid  the  breaches  M'hich  death  is  continually  making 
in  the  church  of  Christ.  A  degree  of  sorrow,  on  such  occasions, 
nature  compels  us  to  feel,  and  religion  does  not  condemn.  At  the 
decease  of  Lazarus,  while  his  sisters  were  lamenting  his  loss,  "  Jesus 
wept."  But  the  sorrow  which  a  Christian  feels  in  such  situations  is 
mingled  with  hope.  By  the  light  of  faith,  he  traces  his  deceased 
friends  into  an  eternal  world.  Instead  of  considering  them  as  lost  or 
extinct,  he  beholds  them  still  under  the  eye  of  Divine  Providence. 
The  period  of  their  trial  is  closed  :  they  have  entered  into  rest,  where, 
sheltered  from  the  storms  of  life  and  the  dangers  of  temptation,  their 
happiness  is  for  ever  fixed  and  luialterable.  Their  separation  is 
neither  final  nor  complete.  Tiie  pious  living  and  the  pious  dead  are 
still  one  family,  under  one  Head  ;  and,  when  he  "  who  is  their  life  shall 
appear,  they  shall  appear  together  with  him  in  glory."  The  friendships 
which  have  had  virtue  and  religion  for  their  basis  will  survive  all  human 
ties,  outlive  the  habitable  globe,  and  form,  in  all  probability,  a  principal 
part  of  the  happiness  of  the  blessed. 

It  is  not  unusual,  I  am  aware,  on  occasions  like  these  to  pass  high 
encomiums  on  the  character  of  the  deceased  ;  a  mode  of  proceeding 
the  less  requisite  in  the  present  instance,  as  the  character  of  Mr. 
Crabb  was  too  well  established,  and  held  in  too  high  esteem,  to  have 
any  thing  to  hope  from  praise,  or  to  fear  from  censure.  His  mild  and 
gentle  spirit  rendered  it  nearly  impossible  for  him  to  have  any  enemies. 
The  innocence  and  sanctity  of  his  behaviour,  the  sensibility  of  hia 
heart,  the  fidelity  with  which  he  discharged  the  duties  of  life,  and  the 
equanimity  with  which  he  bore  its  rebukes  and  sufferings,  will  leave  3 


370  FUNERAL  ORATION. 

lasting  impression  on  the  minds  of  all  his  friends  and  acquaintance. 
You  of  this  church  and  congregation  have  lost  a  friend,  an  instructer, 
a  pastor ;  one  who  was  anxious,  on  every  occasion,  to  promote  your 
spiritual  and  eternal  welfare  ;  who  knew  how  to  rejoice  with  them 
that  rejoice,  and  weep  with  them  that  weep.  You,  my  friends,  will 
long  remember,  I  trust,  the  affectionate  exhortations  he  addressed  to 
you,  and  make  it  appear  on  the  day  of  solemn  account  that  he  has 
not  laboured  in  vain,  nor  spent  his  strength  for  naught.  His  relation 
to  you  as  your  pastor  has  ceased ;  but  its  efl'ects  and  consequences 
will  never  cease ;  they  will  reach  into  eternity,  and  "  become  the 
savour  of  life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death."  If  the  duties  of  the 
ministerial  character  appeared  so  weighty  in  the  eyes  of  an  apostle  that 
he  was  ready  to  sink  under  it,  and  exclaimed,  "  Who  is  sufficient  for 
these  things  ?"  you  will  recollect  it  was  its  connexion  with  the  eternal 
interests  of  his  hearers  which  rendered  his  situation  so  arduous,  and 
his  responsibility  so  awful. 

You  have  now  before  you  one  more  example  of  the  uncertainty  of 
life.  Your  deceased  friend  and  pastor  was  cut  off  in  the  midst  of  his 
days.  His  sun,  instead  of  performing  the  usual  circuit,  set  in  its 
meridian.  He,  no  doubt,  often  endeavoured,  during  his  continuance 
among  you,  to  convince  you  of  the  vanity  of  the  world,  and  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  all  its  enjoyments  to  render  you  happy ;  but  Providence 
determined  he  should  do  more  ;  that  he  should  instruct  you  from  the 
tomb  on  these  topics,  and  bring  them  home  to  your  senses. 

Another  year  is  passed  away,  and  you  have  entered^  upon  a  new 
portion  of  time.*  The  division  of  time  into  distinct  periods,  besides 
its  utility  in  business  and  in  science,  is  favourable  to  moral  reflection. 
On  the  entrance  upon  a  new  year,  a  contemplative  mind  will  be 
naturally  employed  in  estimating  its  acquisitions,  comparing  its  improve- 
ments, retracing  past  occurrences,  and  revolving  future  prospects.  The 
giddy  and  thoughtless  feel  their  attention  for  a  moment  fixed,  and, 
suspecting  all  is  not  right,  form  some  indistinct  resolution  of  repentance 
and  amendment,  which  tliey  are  determined  to  execute  as  soon  as 
some  present  scheme  shall  be  finished,  some  prevailing  passion  gratified, 
or  some  expected  change  in  their  situation  shall  take  place.  The 
present  moment  seems  always  attended  with  insuperable  difficulties ; 
but  they  still  flatter  themselves  with  the  hope  of  some  more  auspicious 
period,  when  their  minds  will  be  disengaged,  their  passions  composed, 
and  religion  assert  its  power.  Thus  year  rolls  on  after  year,  the  self- 
delusion  is  repeated,  and  while  they  are  planning  new  schemes  of  life 
they  sink  into  the  grave. 

If  a  hardened  contempt  of  religion  has  slain  its  thousands,  a  feeble 
and  irresolute  spirit  has  slain  its  ten  thousands.  Are  there  none  in 
this  assembly  who,  it  is  to  be  feared,  are  convinced  of  the  importance 
of  religion,  and  are  yet  unwilling  to  pay  an  immediate  attention  to  it, 
flattering  themselves  they  shall  have  ample  opportunities  of  satisfying 
all  its  demands  ? 

Vain,  presumptuous  man  !  hast  thou  penetrated  the  counsels  of  the 

•  This  Oration  was  delivered  on  New-year's  Day. 


FUNERAL  ORATION.  377 

Almighty,  or  been  permitted  to  read  thy  destiny,  that  while  thou 
beholdest  the  ravages  of  death  all  around  thee, — the  multitudes  which 
fall  at  thy  right  hand  and  at  thy  left,  the  young  and  tlie  old,  the  feeble 
and  the  strong,  hurried  into  eternity, — thou  shouldst  suppose  thyself 
alone  firm  and  immoveable  amid  this  flux  and  succession  of  being? 
Wouldst  thou  wish  to  surmount  the  fear  of  death?  Acquaint  thyself 
with  him  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ;  with  that  Saviour  who 
is  its  author,  its  revealer,  and  its  pattern.  "  Take  his  yoke  upon  you, 
and  learn  of  him."  Attend  to  his  instructions,  and  yield  yourself  up 
to  his  guidance.  You  \vill  then  be  able  to  converse  familiarly  whh 
death.  You  will  feel  no  terror  in  the  prospect  of  future  judgment,  but 
will  wait  for  its  approach,  and  be  able  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  God 
at  his  coming.  "  Finally,  let  us  who  are  of  the  light  and  of  the  day 
be  sober,  putting  on  the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,  and  for  a  helmet 
the  hope  of  salvation."  Instead  of  murmuring  at  such  afflictive  dispen- 
sations as  separate  us  from  those  we  esteem  and  love,  let  us  employ 
them  as  inducements  to  set  our  affections  on  a  better  world,  where  we 
shall  shortly  join  them ;  remembering,  that  whatever  ties  of  affection 
are  broken  by  death  are  taken  from  the  enjoyments  of  time  to  enhcb 
the  prospect  of  eternity. 


SKETCH 

OP   THE 

CHARACTER  OF   MRS.   M.   CARRYER. 

[Written  in  1812.] 


It  is  not  my  intention  to  attempt  a  laboured  eulogium  on  our  departed 
sister,  but  justice  compels  me  briefly  to  notice  some  of  the  distinguish- 
ing traits  of  her  character.  I  regret  that,  partly  owing  to  the  natural 
reserve  of  the  deceased,  and  partly  owing  to  my  own  unsocial  humour, 
my  acquaintance  with  her  was  so  limited.  I  knew  enough  of  her, 
however,  to  convince  me  that  she  was  a  person  of  no  ordinary  worth ; 
and,  from  the  testimony  of  all  who  were  favoured  with  her  intimacy, 
I  am  fully  persuaded  her  piety  was  of  the  most  solid  kind,  not  evapo- 
rating in  talk,  nor  obtruding  itself  in  an  ostentatious  profession,  but 
operating  in  a  constant  and  exemplary  discharge  of  every  private  and 
social  duty.  She  was  a  pattern  of  diligence,  as  well  in  her  attention 
to  domestic  engagements  as  in  the  constancy  with  which  slie  applied 
herself  to  the  means  of  grace,  in  the  closet  and  in  the  sanctuary.  As 
a  wife,  a  mother,  and  a  member  of  a  Christian  church,  her  behaviour 
was  such  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  which  character  she  adorned 
most.  Averse  from  every  kind  of  display,  her  religion  was  of  a 
retired  nature ;  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  and  fed  by  a  secret 
spring,  its  leaf  never  withered,  and  it  brought  forth  its  fruit  in  its  season. 
Her  faith  was  such  as  purified  the  heart,  and  manifested  itself  in  a 
series  of  wise  and  holy  actions.  Her  hope  was  an  anchor  of  the  soul, 
sure  and  steadfast,  entering  into  that  within  the  veil.  In  the  former 
part  of  her  experience,  she  was  sometimes  considerably  agitated  by 
doubts  and  fears  ;  but  during  the  progress  of  the  malady  which  termi- 
nated her  dissolution,  her  painful  apprehensions  gradually  subsided, 
and  although  she  sowed  in  tears,  she  reaped  in  joy.  Her  dying 
testimony  to  the  excellence  of  religion,  and  to  the  power  and  grace  of 
the  Redeemer,  was  most  affecting ;  and  will,  it  is  humbly  hoped, 
leave  a  lasting  impression  on  survivors.  She  often  expressed  her 
gratitude  to  Providence  for  directing  her  choice  to  a  companion  in  life, 
from  whose  example,  and  from  whose  prayers,  she  derived  important 
assistance  in  her  walk  with  God ;  so  that  the  change  of  situation, 
which  to  many  females  becomes  a  temptation  and  a  snare,  became  to 
her  a  great   means  of  spiritual    improvement.     The  virtues  which 


CHARACTER  OF  MRS.  M.  CARRYER.  379 

adorn  a  single  state  she  exhibited,  not  only  unimpaired,  but  with  increas- 
ing lustre,  in  her  conjugal  capacity.  The  essential  benefit  she  derived 
from  her  obedience  to  the  Scriptural  injunction  to  "  marry  in  the  Lord," 
conveys  an  impressive  admonition  to  the  youth  of  both  sexes.  Let 
such  as  attach  any  importance  to  the  cultivation  of  piety,  and  whose 
first  solicitude  it  is  to  be  prepared  for  eternity,  avoid  taking  to  their 
bosoms  a  domestic  enemy,  with  whom  it  will  be  requisite  to  live  in  a 
state  either  of  perpetual  counteraction  or  of  sinful  compliance  ;  and 
from  whom,  without  the  interposition  of  Divine  grace,  they  must  antici- 
pate an  eternal  separation.  Our  dear  departed  sister  made  a  wise 
choice,  and  determined  to  select  as  a  companion  for  life  one  with 
whom  she  could  indulge  a  confident  hope  of  sharing  a  blessed  eternity. 

Her  rapid  advancement  in  every  Christian  grace  was  manifest  to 
every  one  except  to  herself:  for  she  often  expressed  the  deep  sense 
she  entertained  of  her  manifest  imperfections,  while  others  beheld 
nothing  in  her  but  what  was  "  pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  report,"  As 
she  was  clothed  with  humility,  so  she  was  eminently  sober-minded,  at 
the  utmost  distance  from  indulging  in  the  levities,  follies,  and  vain 
competitions  of  the  age.  She  was  chaste,  a  keeper  at  home,  a  lover 
of  her  husband,  a  lover  of  her  children,  and  one  who  guided  her  house 
■with  discretion.  Kindness  to  the  indigent  entered  deeply  into  her- 
character ;  she  delighted  "  to  do  good  to  all  men,  especially  to  such 
as  are  of  the  household  of  faith."  She  was  perfectly  superior  to  the 
vanity  of  dress  ;  her  attire  was  suhed  to  her  station,  neither  mean  nor 
splendid,  but  such  as  became  a  woman  professing  godliness.  Her  con- 
viction of  the  nothingness  of  the  world  was  profound,  and  she  longed, 
would  her  modesty  have  permitted,  to  admonish  her  young  friends  from 
her  dying  bed  to  be  on  their  guard  against  its  fascinations  and  its  snares. 
To  her  relations  she  often  exclaimed,  almost  with  her  dying  breath, 
"  The  world !  the  world !"  intending  to  warn  them  of  what  she  con- 
ceived to  form  their  chief  danger. 

On  the  whole,  among  the  numerous  losses  which  this  church  has 
recently  sustained  I  know  of  none  more  entitled  to  lasting  lamentation 
than  the  present ;  nor  has  there  been  a  member  removed  during  the 
period  of  my  ministry  whose  life  has  been  more  exemplary,  or  whose 
memory  will  be  more  precious. 


THE  CHARACTER 

OF  THE  LATE 

REV.   THOMAS   ROBINSON, 

VICAR  OF    ST.  MARY'S,  LEICESTER; 

As  exhibited  in  a  Speech  delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Leicester  Auxiliary  Bible  Society,  April,  1813. 


It  is  with  a  melancholy  satisfaction  I  rise  to  express  my  entire  ap- 
probation of  the  sentiments  contained  in  the  resolution  just  read. 

It  would,  in  my  opinion,  have  been  unnatural  to  usher  our  annual 
report  into  the  world  without  noticing  that  solemn  and  afl'ecting  dis- 
pensation which  has  deprived  this  society,  this  town,  and  this  county 
of  its  principal  ornament.  We  are  weakened  this  day  by  the  falling 
of  a  pious  and  a  great  man  in  Israel.  In  the  formation  of  this  society 
our  incomparable  friend  had  a  principal  share;  and  through  every 
stage  he  gave  it  an  unremitted  attention,  and  watched  over  its  interests 
with  a  parental  solicitude.  The  idea  of  instituting  an  auxiliary  society 
in  Leicester  was  no  sooner  suggested  to  him  than  it  engaged  his  most 
cordial  good  wishes  ;  he  lent  to  its  support  the  vigour  of  his  masculine 
understanding,  the  energies  of  his  capacious  heart ;  and  to  him,  beyond 
any  other  individual,  it  is  indebted  for  the  patronage  and  the -maturity 
it  has  attained.  He  was  indeed  the  father  of  this  institution. — But  of 
what  institution  formed  for  the  promotion  of  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
welfare  of  mankind  in  this  place  was  he  not  the  father  ?  We  can  look 
nowhere  throughout  this  large  and  populous  town  without  perceiving 
the  vestiges  of  his  unwearied  solicitude  for  the  advancement  of  the 
happiness  of  his  fellow-creatures.  He  has  inscribed  his  history  in  the 
numerous  charitable  and  religious  foundations  which  owe  their  exist- 
ence or  their  prosperity  to  his  influence.  Our  jails,  our  hospitals,  our 
schools,  our  churches,  are  replete  with  monuments  of  his  worth,  and 
with  the  effects  of  his  energetic  benevolence. 

It  is  recorded  of  the  great  Hannibal,  that  when  an  infant  his  father 
conducted  him  to  an  altar,  and  made  him  vow  eternal  hostility  to  the 
Roman  republic.  Our  venerable  friend,  when  he  first  entered  Leices- 
ter, appears  with  an  ardour  not  less  intense  to  have  devoted  himself  to 
its  interests.  From  the  moment  he  entered  the  place  he  appears  to 
have  relinquished  all  selfish  pursuits,  all  idea  of  private  gratification, 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  REV.  THOMAS  ROBINSON.         381 

and  to  have  formed  that  system  of  conduct  from  which  he  never  de- 
parted, which  had  the  most  immediate  tendency  to  meliorate  the  state 
of  its  inhabitants.  He  became  altogether  a  public  character ;  he  medi- 
tated, he  wrote,  he  preached,  he  breathed,  only  for  the  public.  Rarely, 
if  ever,  was  there  a  mind  more  perfectly  purified  from  every  tincture 
of  selfishness  or  vanity.  He  made  the  most  extensive  sacrifices  of  his 
time  and  of  his  repose,  with  a  spontaneity  and  alacrity  which  implied 
an  almost  total  oblivion  of  his  existence  as  an  individual.  Endowed 
with  a  capacity  for  high  attainments  in  science,  and  distinguished  at 
the  university  by  the  honours  assigned  to  superior  merit,  he  generously 
declined  the  pursuit  of  literary  eminence  for  the  sole  purpose  of  doing 
good.  It  is  but  few  who  are  capable  of  adequately  appreciating  the 
magnitude  of  such  a  sacrifice.  Dr.  Paley  was  certainly  one  of  those 
few :  and  I  had  it  from  the  lips  of  our  venerable  friend,  that  in  addict- 
ing himself  to  the  duties  of  a  parish-priest  he  had,  in  the  opinion  of 
that  great  man,  chosen  the  better  part ;  a  choice  which  it  is  evident 
Heaven  singularly  sanctioned  and  approved.  In  fixing  his  system  of 
life  he  had  unquestionably  a  view  to  a  future  account,  and  formed  his 
determination  on  the  assured  persuasion  of  his  appearing  before  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ,  where  the  salvation  of  one  soul  will  cause  a 
more  glorious  distinction  than  the  greatest  literary  attainments  ;  where 
all  greatness  of  a  merely  intellectual  nature  will  disappear,  and  nothing 
endure  the  scrutiny  but  active  and  disinterested  virtue. 

In  the  mean  time,  how  narrow  the  bounds  of  his  influence,  how 
confined  the  ascendency  of  his  character,  had  he  been  only  the  solitary 
student  instead  of  being  the  zealous  and  exemplary  pastor  and  the 
active  citizen !  On  the  former  supposition,  he  had  inscribed  his  me- 
morial in  books ;  on  the  present,  he  inscribed  it  on  hearts ;  and  in- 
stead of  his  being  an  object  of  the  admiration  of  the  few,  he  was  the 
man  of  the  people. 

In  separate  parts  of  his  character  it  were  not  impossible  to  find  some 
who  equalled,  and  others  who  excelled  him  ;  but  in  that  rare  combina- 
tion of  qualities  which  fitted  him  for  such  extensive  usefulness  he  stands 
unrivalled.  As  a  pastor  and  public  instructer  it  may  be  possible  to 
meet  with  some  who  have  attained  the  same  eminence;  as  a  public 
man  he  may  have  been  equalled ;  but  where  shall  we  look  in  modern 
times  for  such  an  example  of  the  union  of  the  highest  endowments  as 
a  pastor  and  preacher,  with  the  qualifications  adapted  to  the  functions 
of  civil  life  ?  It  is  this  rare  union  which  appears  to  me  to  give  the 
character  of  our  venerable  friend  its  decided  pre-eminence.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  recall  to  your  recollection  the  talents  of  Mr.  Robinson  as 
a  public  instructer ;  you  have  most,  if  not  all  of  you,  witnessed  his 
pulpit  exertions  on  that  spot  where  he  was  accustomed  to  retain  a 
listening  throng  hanging  upon  his  lips,  awed,  penetrated,  delighted, 
and  instructed  by  his  manly,  unaffected  eloquence.  Who  ever  heard 
him  without  feeling  a  persuasion  that  it  was  the  man  of  God  who  ad- 
dressed him  ;  or  without  being  struck  with  the  perspicuity  of  his  state- 
ments, the  solidity  of  his  thoughts,  and  the  rich  unction  of  his  spirit? 
It  was  the  harp  of  David  which,  struck  I)y  his  powerful  hands,  sent 
forth  more  than  mortal  sounds,  and  produced  an  impression  far  more 


382  CHARACTER  OF  THE  LATE 

deep  and  permanent  than  the  thunder  of  Demosthenes  or  the  splendid 
coruscations  of  Cicero. 

The  hearers  of  Mr.  Robinson  were  too  much  occupied  by  the  sub- 
jects he  presented  to  their  attention  to  waste  a  thought  on  the  speaker ; 
this  occupied  a  second  place  in  the  order  of  their  reflections  ;  but  when 
it  did  occur,  it  assumed  the  character,  not  of  superficial  admiration,  but 
of  profound  attachment.  Their  feelings  towards  him  were  not  those  of 
persons  gratified,  but  benefited ;  and  they  listened  to  his  instructions, 
not  as  a  source  of  amusement,  but  as  a  spring  of  living  water.  There 
never  was  a  settled  pastor,  probably,  who  had  formed  a  juster  concep- 
tion of  the  true  end  of  preaching,  who  pursued  it  more  steadily,  or 
attained  it  to  a  greater  extent.  He  preached  immortal  truth  with  a 
most  extraordinary  simplicity,  perspicuity,  and  energy,  in  a  style  adapted 
to  all  capacities,  equally  removed  from  vulgarity  and  from  affected 
refinement :  and  the  tribute  paid  to  his  exertions  consisted  not  in  loud 
applauses  ;  it  was  of  a  higher  order  ;  it  consisted  of  penitential  sighs, 
holy  resolutions,  of  a  determination  of  the  whole  soul  for  God,  and 
such  impressions  on  the  spirits  of  men  as  will  form  the  line  of  separa- 
tion between  the  happy  and  the  miserable  to  all  eternity. 

In  a  word,  by  "  the  manifestation  of  the  truth  he  commended  himself 
to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God  ;"  and  the  success  which 
followed  was  such  as  might  be  expected  from  such  eflforts.  Through 
the  protracted  period  of  his  labours  many  thousands,  who  have  finished 
their  course  with  joy,  derived  from  his  ministry,  there  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve, the  principle  of  a  new  life. 

His  residence  in  Leicester  forms  an  epoch  in  the  religious  history 
of  this  county.  From  that  time  must  be  dated,  and  to  his  agency 
under  Providence  must  be  ascribed,  a  decided  improvement  in  the 
moral  and  religious  state  of  this  town  and  its  vicinity ;  an  increase  of 
religious  light ;  together  with  the  general  diffusion  of  a  taste  and  relish 
for  the  pure  word  of  God.  It  is  only  once  in  an  age  that  an  individual 
is  permitted  to  confer  such  benefits  on  the  place  of  his  residence  as 
this  ancient  and  respectable  borough  derived  from  the  labours  of  Mr. 
Robinson ;  and  the  change  which  Baxter  accomplished  at  Kiddermin- 
ster he  eflected  at  Leicester.  It  was  the  boast  of  Augustus,  that  he 
found  the  city  of  Rome  composed  of  brick,  and  left  it  marble.  Mr. 
Robinson  might  say,  without  arrogance,  that  he  had  been  the  instru- 
ment of  effecting  a  far  more  beneficial  and  momentous  change.  He 
came  to  this  place  while  it  was  sunk  in  vice  and  irreligion  ;  he  left  it 
eminently  distinguished  by  sobriety  of  manners  and  the  practice  of 
warm,  serious,  and  enlightened  piety.  He  added  not  aqueducts  and 
palaces,  nor  did  he  increase  the  splendour  of  its  public  edifices :  but 
he  embellished  it  with  undecaying  ornaments  ;  he  renovated  the  minds 
of  the  people,  and  turned  a  large  portion  of  them  "  from  darkness  to 
light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  to  God."  He  embellished  it  with 
living  stones,  and  replenished  it  with  numerous  temples  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  extended  its  intercourse  with  heaven,  and  prepared  a 
numerous  class  of  its  inhabitants  for  the  enjoyment  of  celestial  bliss.  Of 
the  number  of  those  who  will  devoutly  acknowledge  him  as  their 
spiritual  father  at  the  day  of  final  audit,  that  day  only  can  determine 


REV.  THOMAS  ROBINSON.  383 

Nor  was  his  usefulness  confined  to  the  permanent  inhabitants  of  this 
place ;  it  was  extended  to  the  asylum  of  the  sick,  and  to  the  cell  of 
the  criminal :  the  former  found  in  him  a  physician  to  the  soul,  and 
returned  to  their  homes,  not  only  with  recruited  health,  but  with  reno- 
vated minds  ;  and  the  latter  were,  in  many  instances,  by  penitence  and 
prayer,  prepared  for  their  awful  destiny.  Of  him  it  may  be  said,  to 
an  extent  seldom  equalled  by  a  mere  mortal,  "  He  went  about  doing 
good."  "  When  the  eye  saw  him,  it  gave  witness  of  him ;  when  the 
ear  heard  him,  it  blessed  him  ;  for  he  helped  the  poor  and  the  fatherless, 
and  delivered  them  that  were  ready  to  perish."  In  addition  to  his 
numerous  avocations,  he  undertook  the  weekly  instruction  of  an  excel- 
lent and  extensive  school,  which  was  formed  in  his  own  parish  under 
his  auspices,  to  which  he  imparted  the  elements  of  religious  knowledge 
with  a  tenderness  and  assiduity  which  will  never  be  forgotten. 

There  was  scarcely  a  charitable  institution  set  on  foot,  or  a  scheme 
of  benevolence  devised,  of  which  he  did  not  form  the  principal  spring. 
He  was  truly  the  centre  about  which  every  thing  of  public  utility  re- 
volved :  while  his  wisdom  guided,  his  spirit  animated,  and  his  character 
impressed  itself  on  all  useful  undertakings. 

Though  he  came  to  this  place  a  stranger,  without  any  of  the  means 
of  acquiring  adventitious  distinction,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a 
man  endued  with  such  moral  and  intellectual  qualities  should  gradu- 
ally acquire  distinguished  ascendency.  Obstructions  and  difficulties, 
indeed,  he  encountered  at  the  outset  of  his  career ;  but  they  gradually 
gave  way  to  the  energy  of  his  character,  and  at  length  formed  a  van- 
tage-ground, on  which  he  stood  more  pre-eminent.  By  slow  degrees, 
by  a  continual  series  of  virtuous  exertions,  and  a  patient  and  unremitted 
perseverance  in  well-doing,  he  acquired  a  degree  of  influence  over  all 
classes  of  society  which  has  been  the  lot  of  few  individuals.  What- 
ever was  the  subject  of  dispute,  the  eminence  of  Mr.  Robinson's  ser- 
vices was  never  called  in  question ;  and  however  discordant  the  senti- 
ments and  feelings  of  the  public  on  other  topics,  they  perfectly  coalesced 
in  the  homage  due  to  his  worth.  To  the  veneration  in  which  he 
was  so  generally  held  may  be  ascribed  the  principal  part  of  that 
freedom  from  party  animosities,  of  that  concord  and  harmony,  which 
have  for  a  long  period  so  happily  distinguished  this  town.  The  defer- 
ence due  to  his  opinion  on  all  occasions  of  difficulty,  the  unbought 
tribute  of  esteem  and  affection  claimed  by  his  worth,  we  delighted  to 
pay.  We  felt  gratified  on  finding  such  a  rock  on  which  we  could 
repose  our  confidence,  such  a  great  example  of  what  is  most  dignified 
in  human  nature,  on  which  we  could  fix  our  eyes.  By  a  reflex  act, 
the  virtuous  pan  of  the  community  felt  better  pleased  with  themselves, 
in  proportion  as  they  became  susceptible  of  love  and  admiration 
towards  an  object  so  fitted,  on  every  principle  of  reason  and  religion, 
to  command  them. 

'I'hough  I  have  had  the  honour  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
Robinson  for  upwards  of  thirty  years,  it  is  comparatively  but  of  late 
that  I  had  an  opportunity  of  contemplating  him  more  nearly.  While 
placed  at  a  distance,  I  admired  him  as  one  of  the  remote  luminaries 
which  adorn  the  hemisphere ;  I  certainly  perceived  him  to  be  a  star 


384  CHARACTER  OF  THE  LATE 

of  the  first  magnitude :  but  no  sooner  was  I  stationed  upon  the  spot, 
than  I  became  sensible  of  the  lustre  of  his  beams,  felt  the  force  of  his 
attraction,  and  recognised  in  him  the  sun  and  centre  of  the  system. 
His  merit  was  not  of  that  kind  which  attracts  most  admiration  at  a 
distance.  It  was  so  genuine  and  solid,  that  it  grew  in  estimation  the 
more  closely  it  was  inspected.  It  is  possible  some  men  may  have 
extended  their  influence  to  a  wider  circle,  and  moved  in  a  more  ex- 
tended sphere.  But  where  influence  is  diffused  beyond  a  certain  limit, 
it  becomes  attenuated  in  proportion  to  its  diffusion ;  it  operates  with 
an  energy  less  intense.  Mr.  Robinson  completely  filled  as  large  a 
sphere  of  personal  agency  as  is,  perhaps,  possible  to  an  individual. 
He  left  no  part  of  it  unoccupied,  no  interstices  unsupplied,  and 
spread  himself  through  it  with  an  energy  in  which  there  was  nothing 
irregular,  nothing  defective,  nothing  redundant. 

Our  deceased  friend  was  eminently  distinguished  by  a  steady  uni- 
formity of  conduct.  While  he  appeared  to  multiply  himself  by  the 
extent  and  diversity  of  his  exertions,  the  principles  upon  which  they 
were  conducted,  the  objects  they  were  destined  to  promote,  were  inva- 
riably the  same.  He  was  not  active  at  intervals,  and  at  other  times 
torpid  and  inert ;  he  did  not  appear  the  public  man  at  one  time,  and  at 
another  absorbed  in  selfish  pursuits :  his  efforts  to  do  good  in  season 
and  out  of  season  were  constant,  and  his  course  knew  no  other  variety 
than  that  of  the  shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day.  His  goodness,  founded  on  principle  and  corroborated  by 
habit,  operated  with  the  steadiness  of  a  law  of  nature,  the  beneficial 
results  of  which  can  never  be  sufficiently  appreciated  till  they  are 
suspended.  They  who  contemplated  Mr.  Robinson  at  the  distance  of 
forty  years,  viewed  him  with  the  same  emotions  which  he  excited  at  a 
more  advanced  age,  moderated,  however,  and  chastised  by  the  appre- 
hension thai  it  was  possible  some  unexpected  temptation  might  occur 
to  divert  him  from  his  career.  We  have  seen  it  completed,  we  have 
witnessed  his  perseverance  and  his  conquest,  and  have  seen  his  virtues 
and  his  fame  placed  under  the  safeguard  and  seal  of  death  and  im- 
mortality. 

Though  he  had  reached  that  period  of  life  which  constitutes  old  age, 
it  was  a  cruda  viridisque  senectus.  His  age  had  impaired  little  or 
nothing  of  his  vigour  :  its  chief  effect  was  that  of  imparting  additional 
dignity  to  his  countenance,  and  weight  to  his  character.  He  fell  like 
a  noble  tree,  after  two  or  three  strokes,  with  all  his  sap  and  verdure, 
with  extended  boughs  and  rich  foliage,  while  thousands  were  reposing 
under  his  shadow  and  partaking  of  his  fruits.  Seldom  has  death 
gained  a  richer  spoil  than  in  the  extinction  of  the  earthly  existence  of 
this  admirable  man. 

Having  expatiated  so  largely  on  the  eminent  benefits  accruing  to 
mankind  from  the  services  of  our  departed  friend,  let  me  request  your 
attention  for  a  few  moments  longer,  while  I  endeavour  to  portray 
more  distinctly  the  leading  features  of  his  character.  The  predomi- 
nant property  of  his  mind,  intellectually  considered,  appeared  to  me  to 
be  a  strong  and  masculine  understanding,  copious  in  its  resources, 
versatile  in  its  operations,  and  eminently  prompt  in  its  decisions.     He 


REV.  THOMAS  ROBINSON.  385 

saw  with  a  rapid  glance  the  different  bearings  of  a  subject,  and  the 
proper  measures  to  be  adopted  in  the  most  intricate  concerns.  He 
possessed  good  sense  in  an  exquisite  degree,  rarely,  if  ever,  misled  by 
the  illusions  of  imagination,  either  in  himself  or  others.  To  this  was 
united  a  warmth  and  vivacity  of  temperament  which  made  business 
his  delight,  action  his  element ;  accompanied  with  a  resolution  in  his 
pursuits  not  to  be  relaxed  by  fatigue,  nor  damped  by  discouragements, 
nor  retarded  by  difficulties.  To  resolve  and  to  execute,  or  at  least  to 
make  a  vigorous  attempt,  were  witli  him  the  same  thing.  He  joined 
in  an  eminent  degree  the  fortiter  in  re  with  the  suaviter  in  modo ;  none 
more  inflexible  in  his  purposes,  none  more  conciliating  in  his  manners. 
Without  losing  a  particle  of  his  dignity,  without  meanness,  artifice,  or 
flattery,  he  knew  how  to  adapt  himself  to  all  sorts  of  society,  and 
was  equally  acceptable  in  the  character  of  the  saint,  the  sage,  and  the 
cheerful,  engaging  companion.  By  his  amenity  of  manners  and  benig- 
nity of  mind  he  smoothed  the  asperity  of  contradiction,  and  left  to 
the  machine  of  public  business  the  least  possible  friction. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  state,  that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  public 
confidence  in  his  integrity,  which  was  such  that  it  was  not  only  never 
sacrificed,  but,  as  far  as  my  information  extends,  never  suspected. 
They  who  might  differ  from  him  the  most  on  some  subjects,  of  a  reli- 
gious or  political  nature,  never  called  in  question  the  honesty  of  his 
intentions.  To  this  he  joined,  as  a  necessarj^  instrument  of  success 
in  active  life,  an  uncommon  share  of  prudence :  by  which  I  mean,  not 
that  timid  policy  which  creeps  along  the  shore,  without  venturing  to 
commit  itself  to  the  ocean, — which  shuns  danger,  without  aspiring  to 
conquest ;  his  prudence  was  of  a  more  generous  and  enlarged  sort, — 
the  result,  not  so  much  of  calculation  at  the  moment,  as  of  well-regu- 
lated passions  and  established  principles.  He  loved  mankind  too  well 
to  betray,  or  to  speak  evil  of  any.  Vanity  never  fnade  him  loquacious, 
nor  pride  capricious.  Having  purified  his  mind,  under  the  influence 
of  religion,  from  vanity,  pride,  and  resentment,  the  chief  temptations 
to  imprudence  were  precluded.  His  ardent  mind  left  him  no  leisure 
for  trifling,  nor  the  great  object  he  so  steadily  pursued  the  least  dis- 
position to  mingle  with  the  details  of  scandal,  or  the  privacies  of 
domestic  life. 

The  foundation  of  all  these  virtues  was  laid  in  Christian  piety.  It 
was-  this  which  formed  the  basis  of  his  character,  and  directed  and 
regulated  his  pursuits.  His  piety  was  warm,  manly,  enlightened ;  at 
an  equal  distance  from  the  moroseness  of  bigotry,  the  weakness  of 
superstition,  and  the  intemperate  sallies  of  enthusiasm.  His  character 
is  a  practical  illustration  of  the  efficacy  of  the  Bible,  of  which  he  was 
an  humble  and  diligent  student,  whence  he  deduced  his  principles,  and 
formed  his  maxims.  Religion  with  him  was  not  an  occasional  feeling, 
but  an  habitual  element ;  not  a  sudden  or  transient  impulse,  but  a  per- 
manent principle,  a  second  nature,  producing  purity  of  intention,  eleva- 
tion of  mind,  and  an  uninterrupted  series  of  useful  exertions.  Had  he 
been  spared  to  attend  this  anniversary,  he  would  undoubtedly  have 
delighted  us  by  an  impressive  exhibition  of  the  excellences  of  revealed 

Vol.  II.— B  b 


886  CHARACTER  OF  THE  LATE 

truth.  Providence  has  adopted  another  mode  of  instruction ;  and  now 
invites  us  to  learn  from  his  life  and  from  his  death  the  lessons  we  are 
no  longer  permitted  to  hear  from  his  lips.  He,  being  dead,  yet  speak- 
6th ; — he  speaks  in  his  writings,  he  speaks  from  his  tomb,  and  points 
to  that  volume  which  it  is  tlie  object  of  this  assembly  to  circulate,  as 
the  source  of  all  his  virtues,  and  of  all  his  greatness.  After  exhibiting, 
for  our  imitation,  the  lives  of  the  holy  men  recorded  in  Scripture, — 
men  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy, — it  has  pleased  God  to  present 
to  our  attention  his  own,  formed  on  the  same  nwdel,  and  replete  with 
the  same  spirit.  The  reader  of  the  "  Scripture  Characters"  will  be  pow- 
erfully impelled  to  copy  their  example,  by  the  reflection  that  there  are 
few  of  their  excellences  which  their  biographer  did  not  attain ;  that 
they  were  shown  in  his  life  with  no  less  advantage  than  in  his 
writings  ;  and  that,  in  his  most  popular  work,  he  did  nothing  more  than 
inculcate  by  his  pen  what  he  was  incessantly  enforcing  by  his  practice. 

The  loss  which  the  church  of  Christ  has  sustained  by  the  extinction 
of  such  a  luminary  is  great ;  the  loss  to  this  populous  town  and 
neighbourhood  irreparable.  Ages  may  revolve  ere  a  similar  calamity 
occurs.  The  shepherd  is  torn  from  his  flock,  the  spiritual  father 
from  his  children ;  the  sage  counsellor,  the  patron  of  the  poor  and 
the  destitute,  and  the  great  example  of  the  power  of  religion,  whose 
very  countenance  could  not  be  beheld  without  tender  veneration,  is  no 
more.  The  name  of  Robuison  will  long  combine  with  the  mention 
of  this  place  a  train  of  solemn  emotions,  and  the  stranger  will  indulge 
a  pious  curiosity  in  iu&pecting  the  spot  where  he  dwelt,  and  the  church 
where  he  exercised  his  ministry. 

We  knew  the  precarious  tenure  by  which  we  possessed  him  in 
common  with  all  other  blessings  ;  we  kneAV  he  was  mortal ;  but  notwith- 
standing we  received  repeated  warnings  by  a  succession  of  attacks, 
few  had  sufficient  fortitude  steadily  to  realize  the  approaching  event. 
When  the  intelligence  was  circulated  through  the  town,  "  Mr.  Robinson 
is  dead  ! — Mr.  Robinson  is  dead  !"  it  was  a  thunderclap  :  it  produced 
a  sensation  of  dismay  and  astonishment,  as  though  we  scarcely  believed 
to  be  possible  what  we  knew  to  be  certain ;  and  such  an  air  of  desola- 
tion and  sorrow  was  impressed  upon  the  countenance  of  the  inhabitants, 
that  a  stranger  must  have  perceived  they  had  sustained  no  ordinary 
calamity.  It  was  such  as  no  event  could  have  produced  but  the 
removal  of  a  saint  and  a  prophet.  Whoever  wishes  to  learn  how 
much  piety  dignifies  a  character,  how  much  sainted  worth,  in  its 
power  over  the  heart,  preponderates  over  every  other  species  of 
eminence,  let  him  turn  to  this  scene,  and  compare  the  tears  of  a 
populous  neighbourhood  with  the  unmeaning  decorations  of  funereal 
grandeur.  None  spoke  of  his  virtues,  none  was  eloquent  in  his  praise  ; 
every  heart  was  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  its  loss. 

I  cannot  close  this  address  without  remarking  that  the  possession 
of  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Robinson  incurs  a  proportionable  weight  of 
responsibility,  and  that  the  time  is  approaching  when  it  will  be  inquired 
what  improvement  we  have  derived  from  the  exercise  of  such  talents 
and  the  exhibition  of  such  an  example. 

It  is  incumbent  on  his  hearers  especially  to  reflect  that  he  who 


REV.  THOMAS  ROBINSON.  387 

Watched  for  souls  is  gone  to  give  an  account,  not  only  of  the  principles 
on  which  he  conducted,  but  of  the  reception  they  gave  to  his  embassy, 
and  that  against  the  impenitent  and  unbelieving  lie  is  compelled  to  be 
"a  swift  witness  before  God."  His  warning  voice,  his  pathetic  appeals 
and  expostulations,  will  be  heard  no  more ;  but  his  record  is  on  high, 
and  the  ministry  he  so  long  exercised  among  us  will  infallibly  be  a 
savour  of  life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death.  His  life  was  not  so 
properly  employed  as  consumed  in  the  incessant  labour  to  bring  sinners 
to  repentance ;  and  awful  will  be  the  doom  of  those  who  persist  in 
rejecting  the  overtures  of  mercy,  the  word  of  reconciliation  dispensed 
with  such  admirable  zeal,  ability,  and  address. 

To  the  pastoral  cares,  studies,  and  instructions  of  this  most  eminent 
servant  of  God,  death  has  put  a  final  termination ;  but  the  enjoyment 
of  such  a  ministry,  and  even  the  opportunity  of  witnessing  such  an 
example,  will  form  a  conspicuous  feature  in  our  probation,  and  be 
replete  with  consequences  which  stretch  into  eternity. 

Permit  me  to  indulge  one  more  reflection :  the  life  and  ministry  of 
this  great  man  of  God  affords  a  demonstration  of  the  futility  of  the 
clamour  which  is  raised  against  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  grace 
through  faith,  as  though  it  tended  to  relax  the  obligations  to  virtue  and 
to  annul  the  commands  of  God.  Who  ever  insisted  on  this  doctrine 
more  constantly,  or  urged  its  importance  more  earnestly,  than  he  ?  and 
where,  among  its  opponents,  shall  we  discover  indications  of  similar 
usefulness  ?  Through  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years  he  employed 
himself  in  beating  down  the  arrogance  of  a  self-justifying  spirit,  in 
evincing  the  impossibility  of  being  accept'ed  on  the  footing  of  our  own 
works,  and  in  directing  men  of  every  description  to  seek  for  pardon  in 
the  blood  of  the  Cross.  If  there  were  any  one  topic  on  which  he 
delighted  to  dwell  more  than  others,  this  was  unquestionably  the  topic. 

To  his  manly  and  unsophisticated  understanding  it  was  evident  to  a 
demonstration  that  repentance  must  be  grafted  on  humility,  and  that 
there  was  no  room  to  apprehend  his  hearers  would  be  tempted  to  con- 
temn the  authority,  in  consequence  of  being  abased  before  the  majesty 
of  God.  He  was  also  perfectly  convinced  that  the  blood  of  Christ, 
sprinkled  by  faith,  was  the  only  effectual  balm  for  afflicted  consciences. 
On  these  principles  he  conducted  his  ministry  for  near  half  a  century, 
and  we  may  challenge  his  enemies  (if  there  be  any  remaining)  to  deny 
that  its  fruits  were  most  salutary.  If  the  apostolic  doctrine  which 
affirms  that  we  are  justitied  by  faith  witliout  the  deeds  of  the  law, 
possess  the  tendency  to  licentiousness  which  its  opponents  ascribe  to 
it,  that  tendency  could  not  have  failed  to  operate  under  a  course  of 
instruction  so  long  continued,  and  of  wliich  the  tenet  in  question 
formed  so  distinguishing  a  feature.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them  :  men  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  nor  figs  of  thistles." 

To  conclude :  The  fittest  improvement  we  can  make  of  the  melan- 
choly event  we  are  now  deploring  will  be  a  serious  attention  to  the 
exhortation  of  St.  Paul  addressed  to  primitive  Christians  on  the  loss 
of  eminent  pastors  : — "  Rememl)cr  them  which  have  had  the  rule  over 
you  ;  and  considering  the  end  of  their  conversation,  imitate  their  faith." 

Bb3 


FRAGMENT. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  REV.  JOHN  SUTCLIFF. 

[Written  in  1814.     Not  published  before.'] 


A  SWEET  humility  formed  a  very  distinguishing  feature  in  his  char- 
acter. Who  ever  witnessed  in  our  deceased  brother  those  airs  of 
arrogance  or  that  fondness  for  display  which  are  frequently  found  in 
persons  of  very  inferior  talents  and  acquirements  to  those  which  he 
possessed  1  In  truth,  his  aversion  to  ostentation  might  alone  be  said 
to  be  carried  to  excess,  since  it  prevented  him  in  his  public  ministry 
from  availing  himself  of  [those]  ample  stores  of  knowledge  by  which 
he  could  often  have  delighted  and  instructed  his  hearers.  He  had  far 
more  learning  than  the  mere  hearer  of  his  discourses  would  have 
conjectured ;  for  he  seemed  almost  as  anxious  to  conceal  as  some  are 
to  display. 

Nor  was  it  in  this  particular  alone  that  his  humility  was  apparent. 
It  diffused  itself  over  the  whole  of  his  character  and  deportment,  and 
gave  it  a  certain  beauty  which  [no]  artifice  could  successfully  imitate. 
His  humility  was  not  displayed  in  depreciating  his  performances, 
nor  in  speaking  of  himself  in  degrading  terms :  it  appeared  rather 
in  forgetting  himself,  and  in  a  natural  readiness  to  give  others  the 
superiority.  It  accompanied  him  so  incessantly,  that  he  might  truly 
be  said  to  "  be  clothed  with  humility." 

As  his  disposition  little  inclined  him  to  ecstasy  and  rapture,  so  his 
piety  shone  with  a  mild  and  steady  lustre,  perfectly  free  from  the  false 
fire  of  enthusiasm,  and  equally  from  a  lukewarm  formality.  There 
were  few  men  in  whom  it  appeared  more  natural,  or  more  manifestly 
as  a  principle  interwoven  with  the  inmost  texture  of  his  mind.  His 
great  modesty  seldom  permitted  him  to  advert  to  his  own  experience 
either  in  public  discourse  or  in  more  private  conversation ;  but  a 
savour  of  experimental  piety  pervaded  his  whole  character. 

The  mild  and  placid  cheerfulness  which  marked  his  countenance 
and  deportment  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  he  habitually  walked  in 
the  Divine  light,  and  the  evidences  of  his  interest  in  the  Divine  favour 
were  rarely,  if  ever,  impaired  or  eclipsed.  He  was  one  of  the  few 
men  whose  cheerfulness  appeared  to  be  increased  by  age ;  verifying. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  REV.  JOHN  SUTCLIFF.  389 

ill  this  particular,  the  description  given  of  "  the  path  of  the  just,  that  is 
as  the  shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day."  His  life  was  truly  exemplary,  being  filled  up  with  an  uninter- 
rupted series  of  useful,  benevolent,  and  pious  actions,  proceedino-  from 
their  principles,  and  distinguished  by  an  eminent  decorum  of  time  and 
place.  He  was  a  pattern  to  believers,  "  in  faith,  in  purity,  and  in 
conversation."  Though  rather  the  opposite  to  loquacious,  he  had  a 
high  relish  for  the  pleasures  of  Christian  society,  in  which  it  is  dilficult 
to  say  whether  he  imparted  or  received  most  pleasure.  "  The  law  of 
kindness  was  on  his  tongue ;"  and  so  attentive  was  he  on  every 
occasion  to  the  feelings  of  those  with  whom  he  conversed,  that  his 
company  was  both  inoffensive  and  delightful. 

Througli  a  long  series  of  years  his  attendance  at  the  association 
and  at  ministers'  meetings  was  so  constant  and  punctual  that  his 
occasional  absence  was  severely  felt,  and  that  meeting  seemed 
esseniially  defective  which  was  not  graced  with  his  presence.  His 
appearance  among  us  was  hailed  as  a  certain  presage  of  harmony  and 
love.  Multitudes  can  witness  the  deep  and  pungent  regret  experienced 
at  the  last  annual  association  at  the  melancholy  tidings  of  that  fatal 
illness  which  prevented  his  attendance. 

Few  men  took  a  deeper  interest  than  our  deceased  brother  in  the 
general  state  of  the  church  and  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  abroad. 
The  future  glory  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  the  best  means  of 
promoting  it  were  his  favourite  topics,  and  usurped  a  large  part  of  his 
thoughts  and  his  prayers ;  nor  was  he  ever  more  in  his  element  than 
when  he  was  exerting  his  powers  in  devising  plans  for  its  extension. 
The  Baptist  mission  in  India  is  under  incalculable  obligations  to  his 
sagacity  and  prudence. 


MEMOIR 

OF 

THE   REV.   THOMAS    TOLLER, 

[Written  in  1821.] 


The  subject  of  the  following  Memoir  was  born  at  South  Petherton, 
a  populous  village  in  Somersetshire,  A.  D.  1756.  His  parents  were 
John  and  Mary  Toller,  whose  maiden  name  was  Northcote.  His 
father  was  an  attorney  of  eminence,  two  of  whose  sons  were  educated 
for  that  profession.  Of  the  early  years  of  Thomas,  the  subject  of  the 
following  narrative,  I  have  little  information,  further  than  that  both  his 
parents  were  eminently  pious,  and  that  he  always  considered  himself 
indebted,  under  God,  for  his  first  religious  impressions  to  the  tender 
solicitude  of  his  mother  for  the  promotion  of  his  eternal  welfare. 
Whether  those  impressions  issued  at  that  period  in  genuine  conversion 
is  not  known :  nor  are  we  possessed  of  any  authentic  information  of  the 
circumstances  connected  with  that  event.  The  extreme  diffidence 
and  modesty  which  distinguished  Mr.  Toller  probably  prevented  his 
relating  to  his  nearest  friends  the  early  exercises  of  his  mind  on 
religious  subjects  :  the  consequence  is,  that  in  this  instance,  as  in 
many  others,  we  are  left  to  infer  the  reality  of  the  change  from  its 
effects.  The  light  and  insinuations  of  the  Divine  Spirit  so  often 
accompany  the  conduct  of  a  strictly  religious  education,  that  some 
of  the  most  eminent  Christians  have  acknowledged  themselves  at  a 
loss  to  assign  the  precise  era  of  their  conversion  ;  but  whether  this 
was  the  case  with  our  excellent  friend  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

At  the  early  age  of  fifteen,  his  parents  sent  him  to  the  academy  at 
Daventry  in  Northamptonshire,  over  which  Dr.  Ashworth,  the  worthy 
successor  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Doddridge,  presided :  his  assistant  in 
the  academy  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Robins,  who  afterward  occupied  the 
same  station  with  distinguished  ability.  Of  both  his  tutors  he  was 
■wont  to  speak  in  terms  of  high  respect :  of  Mr.  Robins  he  was  often 
heard  to  say,  that  he  considered  him  as  the  wisest  and  the  best  man 
he  ever  knew.  Among  many  other  mental  endowments,  he  was  re- 
markable for  delicacy  of  taste  and  elegance  of  diction ;  and,  perhaps, 
my  reader  will  excuse  my  observing,  that  the  first  perception  of  these 
qualities  which  the  writer  of  these  lines  remembers  to  have  possessed, 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  39l' 

arose  from  hearing  him  preach  at  Northampton  on  a  public  occasion. 
It  is  to  be  lamented  that  he  has  left  none  of  those  productions  behind 
him,  which  a  correct  and  beautiful  imagination,  imbodied  in  language 
of  the  most  classic  purity,  rendered  so  impressive  and  delightful.  The 
qualities  of  his  heart  corresponded  to  those  of  his  genius  ;  and  though 
■long  before  his  death  his  bodily  infirmities  obliged  him  to  relinquish  a 
commanding  statioir  and  retire  into  obscurity,  he  retairred  to  the  last 
such  an  ascendency  over  the  minds  of  his  former  pupils,  and  such  an 
interest  in  their  affections,  as  nothing  but  worth  of  the  highest  order 
can  command. 

To  return  from  this  digression.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Toller's 
admission  into  the  Daventry  academy,  the  literary  reputation  of  that 
seminary  was  higher  than  that  of  any  among  the  dissenters  ;  but 
partly  owing  to  a  laxness  in  the  terms  of  admission,  and  partly  to  the 
admixture  of  lay  and  divinity  students,  combined  with  the  mode  in 
which  theology  was  taught,  erroneous  principles  prevailed  much ;  and 
the  majority  of  such  as  were  educated  there  became  more  distinguished 
for  their  learning  than  for  the  fervour  of  their  piety,  or  the  purity  of  their 
doctrine.  The  celebrated  Priestley  speaks  of  the  state  of  the  academy, 
while  he  resided  there,  with  great  complacency :  nothing,  he  assures 
us,  could  be  more  favourable  to  the  progress  of  free  inquiry ;  since 
both  the  tutors  and  students  were  about  equally  divided  between  the 
orthodox  and  Arian  systems.  The  argtmients  by  which  every  possible 
modification  of  error  is  attempted  to  he  supported  were  carefully 
rBarshalled  in  hostile  array  against  the  principles  generally  embraced  ; 
while  the  theological  professor  prided  himself  on  the  steady  impartiality 
with  which  he  held  the  balance  between  the  contending  systems,  seldom 
or  never  interposing  his  own  opinion,  and  still  less  betraying  the 
slightest  emotion  of  antipathy  to  error,  or  predilection  to  truth.  Thus 
a  spirit  of  indifference  to  all  religious  principles  was  generated  in  the 
first  instance,  which  naturally  paved  the  way  for  the  prompt  reception 
of  doctrines  indulgent  to  the  corruption  and  flattering  to  the  pride  of  a 
depraved  and  fallen  nature. 

To  affirm  that  Mr.  Toller  derived  no  injury  from  being  exposed  at 
so  tender  an  age  to  this  vortex  of  unsanctified  speculation  and  debate, 
would  be  affirming  too  much,  since  it  probably  gave  rise  to  a  certain 
general  manner  of  stating  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gospel  which 
attached  chiefly  to  the  earlier  part  of  his  ministry  ;  though  it  is  equally 
certain  that  his  mind,  even  when  he  left  the  academy,  was  so  far  imbued 
with  the  grand  peculiarities  of  the  gospel  that  he  never  allowed  himself 
to  lose  sight  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  as  the  only  basis  of  human 
hope. 

Of  the  conduct  of  his  academical  studies  nothing  memorable  is 
recorded.  From  a  very  accomplished  man,  who  I  believe  was  his 
fellow-student,  I  have  merely  heard  that  he  had  no  relish  for  the 
mathematics,  a  circumstance  which  has  been  often  recorded  in  the 
biography  of  men  of  indisputable  intellectual  pre-eminence. 

After  a  residence  at  Daventry  of  four  years,  he  was  appointed  to 
supply  a  destitute  congregation  at  Kettering,  where  he  preached  for 


392  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

the  first  time  October  1,  1775  ;  and  his  services  proved  so  acceptable, 
that,  after  repeated  visits,  he  was  invited  to  take  up  his  permanent 
residence  with  them,  with  which  he  compUed  in  June  of  the  ensuing- 
year,  and  was  ordained  pastor  May  28,  1778.  On  his  first  coming 
to  Kettering,  the  church  was  in  a  divided  and  unsettled  state.  His 
immediate  predecessor  was  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Fuller,  who, 
at  the  end  of  two  years,  in  consequence  of  much  dissension  in  the 
church,  resigned  the  pastoral  charge.  Mr.  Fuller  was  preceded  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Boyce,  who  sustained  the  pastoral  office  for  a  long  series 
of  years  with  the  highest  reputation  and  success,  and  whose  death 
was  deplored  as  an  irreparable  calamity,  leaving  it  very  improbable 
that  a  successor  could  be  speedily  found  capable  of  uniting  the 
suffrages  of  a  people  whose  confidence  and  esteem  he  had  so  long 
exclusively  enjoyed.  Such  is  the  imperfection  of  the  present  state, 
that  the  possession  of  a  more  than  ordinary  portion  of  felicity  is  the 
usual  forerunner  of  a  correspondent  degree  of  privation  and  distress ; 
and  the  removal  of  a  pastor  who  has  long  been  the  object  of  veneration 
generally  places  a  church  in  a  critical  situation,  exposed  to  feuds  and 
dissensions,  arising  out  of  the  necessity  of  a  new  choice.  That  of  Mr. 
Toller,  notwithstanding  his  extreme  youth,  was  nearly  unanimous. 
When  he  first  supplied  the  congregation,  nothing  was  more  remote 
from  his  expectation  than  being  invited  to  a  permanent  residence :  his 
highest  ambition  was  to  be  tolerated  as  a  transient  supply ;  and  when, 
to  his  no  small  surprise,  they  made  choice  of  him  as  their  stated 
minister,  he  entered  on  that  office  with  that  heartfelt  conviction  of  its 
importance,  and  unfeigned  distrust  of  his  own  sufficiency,  which  are 
the  surest  omen  of  success.  He  commenced  his  career  with  fear 
and  trembling  ;  and  instead  of  being  elated  by  the  preference  shown 
him  by  a  large  and  respectable  society,  he  trembled,  and  was  ready 
to  sink  under  the  weight  of  his  responsibility. 

Few  men  probably  have  been  more  indebted  for  the  formation  of  their 
character  to  the  fervent  piety  of  their  audience.  Such  was  the  state 
of  his  mind  at  that  period,  that  had  he  been  connected  with  a  people 
of  an  opposite  character,  his  subsequent  history  would  have  exhibited, 
in  all  probability,  features  very  dissimilar  from  those  which  eventually 
belonged  to  it.  If,  in  a  lengthened  ministerial  course,  the  people  are 
usually  formed  by  their  pastor,  in  the  first  stage  it  is  the  reverse ;  it 
is  the  people  who  form  the  minister.  Mr.  Toller  often  expressed  his 
gratitude  for  that  merciful  providence  which  united  him  at  so  early  a 
period  with  a  people  adapted  to  invigorate  his  piety,  and  confirm  his 
attachment  to  the  vital,  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity.  The 
reciprocal  influence  of  a  minister  and  a  congregation  on  each  other  is 
so  incessant  and  so  powerful,  that  I  would  earnestly  dissuade  an 
inexperienced  youth  from  connecting  himself  with  a  people  whose 
doctrine  is  erroneous,  or  whose  piety  is  doubtful,  lest  he  should  be 
tempted  to  consult  his  ease  by  choosing  to  yield  to  a  current  he  would 
find  it  difficult  to  resist.  To  root  up  error,  and  reclaim  a  people  from 
inveterate  habits  of  vice  and  irreligion,  is  unquestionably  a  splendid 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  393 

achievement ;  but  it  requires  a  hardihood  of  character  and  decision 
of  principle  not  often  found  in  young  persons. 

Little  variety  must  be  looked  for  in  the  subsequent  sketch  of  Mr. 
Toller's  life.  As  he  travelled  little,  and  seldom  mingled  in  the  scenes 
of  public  business, — as  his  habits  were  domestic  and  his  disposition 
retired, — years  glided  away,  without  presenting  an  occurrence  of  suffi- 
cient magnitude  to  entitle  it  to  a  permanent  record.  Through  a  long 
series  of  years,  he  persevered  in  the  exemplary  discharge  of  his 
spiritual  functions,  among  a  people  wlio,  in  proportion  as  his  talents 
unfolded  themselves,  regarded  liim  with  increasing  love  and  venera- 
tion, as  well  on  account  of  his  ministerial  qualifications,  as  his  amiable, 
prudent,  and  consistent  deportment.  He  was  the  centre  of  union  to  a 
large  and  an  extensive  circle  of  ministers  and  of  people,  who,  however 
they  might  differ  in  other  particulars,  unanimously  concurred  in  their 
admiration  of  his  talents,  and  their  esteem  of  his  virtues.  He  was 
surrounded  by  friends  who  vied  with  each  other  in  demonstrations 
of  respect,  and  by  an  audience  who  looked  forward  to  each  succeeding 
Sabbath  as  to  a  mental  feast,  and  who  hung  upon  his  lips  with  an 
attention  which  might  have  tempted  a  stranger  to  suppose  they  were 
hearing  him  for  the  first  time  or  the  last.  From  the  commencement 
of  his  residence  at  Kettering,  the  attachment  of  his  people  went  on 
still  increasing,  till  it  arrived  at  a  point  beyond  which  it  would  have 
heen  idolatry.  This  extraordinary  attachment  must  be  ascribed  partly 
to  the  impression  produced  by  his  public  services,  and  partly  to  the 
gentleness  and  amenity  of  his  private  manners.  It  may  be  possible 
to  find  other  preachers  equally  impressive,  and  other  men  equally 
amiable  ;  but  such  a  combination  of  the  qualities  calculated  to  give  the 
ascendant  to  a  public  speaker  with  those  which  inspire  the  tenderness 
of  private  friendship,  is  of  rare  occurrence.  The  leisure  Avhich  the 
retired  and  tranquil  tenor  of  his  life  secured  he  employed  in  the  perusal 
of  the  best  authors  in  our  language,  which,  by  continually  adding  to 
his  mental  stores,  imparted  to  his  ministry  an  ample  and  endless  variety. 
Although  he  almost  invariably  preached  from  notes  composed  in  short- 
hand, his  immediate  preparations  for  the  pulpit,  there  is  reason  to 
believe,  were  neither  long  nor  laborious.  His  discourses  were  not  the 
painful  productions  of  a  barren  mind,  straining  itself  to  meet  the  exi- 
gences of  the  moment ;  but,  gathered  from  a  rich  and  cultivated  soil, 
they  were  a  mere  scantling  of  the  abundance  which  was  left  behind. 
He  considered  every  new  accession  to  the  slock  of  his  ideas,  every 
effort  of  reflection,  as  a  preparation  for  the  pulpit ;  and  looked  upon 
those  who  are  necessitated  to  afford  a  portion  of  periodical  instruction 
every  week  without  having  accumulated  mental  stores,  as  in  much 
the  same  situation  with  the  Israelites  who  were  doomed  to  produce 
their  tale  of  bricks  without  straw.  Preachers  of  this  description  may 
indeed  amass  a  heap  of  glittering  and  misplaced  ornaments,  or  beat 
the  air  with  the  flourishes  of  a  tumid,  unmeaning  rhetoric ;  but  the 
deficiency  of  real  matter,  of  solid  information,  cannot  fail  eventually 
to  consign  them  to  contempt.  Whether  Mr.  Toller  was  ever  a  severe 
student,  or  ever  was  engaged  in  a  regular  and  systematic  pursuit  of  the 


394  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

diflerent  branches  of  literature  or  of  science,  I  cannot  ascertain  ;  but 
that  he  was  much  devoted  to  reading  is  matter  of  notoriety.  By  the 
incessant  accumulation  of  fresh  materials,  he  became  "  a  scribe  well 
instructed  in  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God,"  and,  "  like  a  wise 
householder,"  was  enabled  "  to  bring  out  of  his  treasure  things  new 
and  old."  The  settlement  of  Mr.  Fuller,  the  venerable  secretary  of  the 
Baptist  Mission,  in  the  same  place,  by  giving  scope  to  a  virtuous 
emulation,  was  probably  equally  beneficial  to  both  parties.  From  the 
absence  of  competition,  and  the  abundance  of  leisure  attending  a  country 
retirement,  the  mental  faculties  are  in  danger  of  slumbering ;  the  rust 
of  sloth  too  often  blunts  their  edge,  and  impairs  their  brightness ; 
which  nothing  could  be  more  fitted  to  counteract  than  the  presence 
of  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Fuller,  distinguished  for  constitutional  ardour 
and  industry. 

In  the  year  1793  he  entered  into  the  married  state  %vith  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Gale,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Mr.  Wilham  Gale,  who  then  resided 
at  Cranford,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kettering.  By  this  lady  he  had 
two  children, — John,  who  died  in  his  infancy,  and  Thomas,  who  still 
surnves  him,  and  under  the  most  pleasing  auspices  succeeds  his  flither 
in  the  pastoral  office.  During  the  short  period  of  this  union  he  appears 
to  have  enjoyed  the  highest  degree  of  connubial  felicity  ;  but  not  long 
after  the  birth  of  her  second  child  Mrs.  Toller  betrayed  symptoms  of 
consumption,  and  after  languishing  a  considerable  time  under  the 
attack  of  that  incurable  malady,  through  the  whole  of  which  her 
ardent  attachment  to  her  husband  and  profound  submission  to  the  will 
of  God  were  most  conspicuous,  she  expired  on  the  15th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1796. 

It  was  about  this  period  of  his  life  that  my  acquaintance  with  him 
commenced.  I  had  known  him  previously,  and  occasionally  heard 
him  ;  but  it  was  at  a  season  when  I  was  not  qualified  to  form  a  correct 
estimate  of  his  talents.  At  the  time  referred  to  we  were  engaged  to 
preach  a  double  lecture  at  Thrapstone,  nine  miles  from  Kettering  ;  and 
never  shall  I  forget  the  pleasure  and  surprise  with  which  I  listened 
to  an  expository  discourse  from  1  Peter  ii.  1-3.  The  richness,  tlie 
unction,  the  simple  majesty  which  pervaded  his  address  produced  a 
sensation  which  I  never  felt  before :  it  gave  me  a  new  view  of  the 
Christian  ministry.  But  the  effect,  powerful  as  it  was,  was  not  to  be 
compared  with  that  which  I  experienced  a  few  days  after,  on  hearing 
him  at  the  half-yearly  association  at  Bedford.  The  text  which  he 
selected  was  peculiarly  solemn  and  impressive :  his  discourse  was 
founded  on  2  Peter  i.  12-15, — "  Yea,  I  think  it  meet  as  long  as  I  am 
in  this  tabernacle  to  stir  you  up  by  putting  you  in  remembrance ; 
knowing  that  sliortly  I  must  put  off"  this  my  tabernacle,  even  as  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  showed  me,"  &c.  The  effect  of  this  discourse 
on  the  audience  was  such  as  I  have  never  witnessed  before  or  since. 
It  was  undoubtedly  very  much  aided  by  the  peculiar  circumstances  of 
the  speaker,  who  was  judged  to  be  far  advanced  in  a  decline,  and  who 
seemed  to  speak  under  a  strong  impression  of  its  being  the  last  time 
he  should  address  his  brethren  on  such  an  occasion.     The  aspect  of 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER  395 

the  preacher,  pale,  emaciated,  standing  apparently  on  the  verge  of  eter- 
nity, the  simplicity  and  majesty  of  his  sentiments,  the  sepulchral 
solemnity  of  a  voice  which  seemed  to  issue  from  the  shades,  com- 
bined with  the  intrinsic  dignity  of  the  subject,  perfectly  quelled  the 
audience  with  tenderness  and  terror,  and  produced  such  a  scene  of 
audible  weeping  as  was  perhaps  never  surpassed.  All  other  emotions 
were  absorbed  in  devotional  feeling  :  it  seemed  to  us  as  tliough  we 
were  permitted  for  a  short  space  to  look  into  eternity,  and  every  sub- 
lunary object  vanished  before  "  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come."  Yet 
there  was  no  considerable  exertion,  no  vehemence  displayed  by  the 
speaker,  no  splendid  imagery,  no  magnificent  description :  it  was  the 
simple  domination  of  truth,  of  truth  indeed  of  infinite  moment,  borne  in 
upon  the  heart  by  a  mind  intensely  alive  to  its  reality  and  grandeur. 
Criticism  was  disarmed ;  the  hearer  felt  himself  elevated  to  a  region 
which  it  could  not  penetrate ;  all  was  powerless  submission  to  the 
Hiaster-spivit  of  the  scene.  It  will  be  always  considered  by  those  who 
witnessed  it  as  affording  as  high  a  specimen  as  can  be  easily  conceived 
of  the  power  of  a  preacher  over  his  audience,  the  habitual  or  even  fre- 
quent recurrence  of  which  would  create  an  epoch  in  the  religious 
history  of  the  world. 

During  this  interview  he  was  invited  by  the  writer  of  these  lines  to 
pay  a  visit  to  his  friends  at  Cambridge  :  with  that  invitation  he  shortly 
after  complied.  His  health  had  long  been  much  impaired,  and  serious 
apprehensions  had  been  entertained,  by  others  as  well  as  by  himself, 
of  his  being  far  advanced  in  a  decline.  By  his  excursion  to  Cambridge, 
however,  in  the  course  of  which  he  met  with  the  most  flattering  atten- 
tions from  all  quarters,  his  spirits  were  revived,  his  health  improved, 
and  from  that  time  the  symptoms  of  disease  gradually  subsided.  During 
his  visit  he  afforded  the  people  of  Cambridge  and  its  vicinity  several 
opportunities  of  hearing  him ;  and  on  no  occasion  was  he  heard  with- 
out admiration  and  delight :  for,  though  no  single  discourse  was  equally 
impressive  with  that  which  was  delivered  at  Bedford,  he  sustained  to 
the  full  the  high  reputation  he  had  acquired;  nor  will  the  numerous 
and  respectable  congregations  he  addressed  ever  cease  to  consider  this 
as  one  of  the  most  favoured  seasons  of  their  lives.  From  that  time  his 
celebrity  as  a  preacher  was  diffused  through  a  much  wider  circle  than 
before :  he  began  universally  to  be  esteemed  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished ministers  of  the  age, — a  character  which  he  maintained  with 
undiminished  lustre  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

He  continued  a  widower  till  the  year  1803,  when  he  took  for  his 
second  wife  Elizabeth,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Mr.  William  Wilkinson, 
of  Northampton,  by  wliom  he  had  five  children,  Richard,  William,  Jo- 
seph, Henry,  and  George,  all  of  whom,  together  with  their  mother, 
survive  him.  To  what  degree  this  union  contributed  to  the  happiness 
of  the  latter  stages  of  his  life  the  delicacy  due  to  a  most  amiable  wo- 
man, whose  humility  renders  her  as  averse  to  receive  praises  as  she  is 
careful  to  deserve  them,  forbids  me  to  say.  Suffice  it  to  observe,  that 
notwithstanding  the  disparity  of  years,  there  never  was  a  connexion 
which  more  completely  realized  the  highest  anticipations  of  the  friend* 
of  both  parties. 


396  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

In  the  year  1799  the  congregation  assembhng  in  Carter-lane,  Lon- 
don, under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  excellent  Mr.  Taylor,  wanting  a 
supply  for  one  part  of  the  day,  applied  to  Mr.  Toller,  and  offered  him 
for  one  service  only  a  salary  considerably  beyond  what  he  then  enjoyed. 
To  this  invitation  he  gave  a  decided  negative.  In  the  eginning  of  the 
following  year  the  congregation  at  Clapham  gave  him  a  similar  invita- 
tion, which  he  also  declined.  The  two  congregations  then  united 
their  invitations,  offering  a  large  salary  on  condition  of  his  undertaking 
a  single  service  at  each  place.  This  joint  application  he  refused. 
The  people  of  Kettering,  hearing  of  these  repeated  attempts  to  remove 
him,  became  justly  alarmed  :  a  few  of  them  waited  upon  him,  informing 
him  of  the  uneasiness  they  felt  at  the  repeated  attempts  which  had 
been  made  and  were  still  making  to  effect  a  separation.  They  assured 
him  of  his  entire  possession  of  the  hearts  of  his  people,  and  that  though 
their  situation  did  not  permit  their  making  such  proposals  as  the  other 
parties,  they  would  do  all  in  their  power,  and  most  gladly  rectify  any 
circumstances  which  gave  him  uneasiness.  His  reply  was,  that  if  he 
found  his  services  still  acceptable,  no  pecuniary  advantages  should  ever 
tempt  him  to  relinquish  his  charge.  At  the  same  time  he  intimated, 
that  as  the  two  congregations  still  persisted  in  their  application,  he 
wished  his  people  publicly  to  express  their  sentiments  on  the  subject, 
•that  be  might  be  armed  with  conclusive  reasons  for  declining  invita- 
tions so  earnestly  and  repeatedly  urged.  This  gave  occasion  to  three 
separate  addresses^ — from  the  young  people,  from  the  members  of  the 
Benevolent  Society,  and  from  the  congregation  at  large ;  each  expres- 
sive of  the  high  esteem  they  entertained  for  his  character,  their  sense 
of  the  benefit  derived  from  his  ministry,  and  their  extreme  reluctance 
to  resign  advantages  which  they  so  highly  prized.  To  these  addresses 
3  most  affectionate  and  appropriate  reply  was  made  by  their  pastor,  in 
which  he  assured  them  of  his  unalterable  attachment,  together  with  his 
final  determination  to  accede  to  their  wishes  ;  and  thus  ended  the  last 
attempt  to  remove  Mr.  Toller  from  his  station. 

The  reader  will  naturally  be  surprised  to  find  that  on  this  occasion 
no  address  was  presented  by  the  church.  As  this  omission  cannot  with 
a  shadow  of  probability  be  ascribed  to  indifference  on  their  part,  it  must 
be  imputed  to  the  church  not  occupying  that  rank  in  the  esteem  of  the 
auditory  to  which  it  is  justly  entitled.  In  every  Christian  congregation 
the  church  ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  principal  object,  to  which  the 
auditory  are  but  an  appendage,  and  for  a  union  with  which  it  should 
be  their  highest  ambition  to  become  qualified.  Congregations  are  the 
creatures  of  circumstances  ;  churches  the  institution  of  God  :  and  if  we 
adhere  to  the  maxims  and  examples  of  Scripture,  and  of  primitive  an- 
tiquity, in  all  religious  proceedings  their  judgment  will  first  be  consulted, 
and  their  official  character  recognised.  But  here  we  meet  with  a  trans- 
action of  great  moment,  in  which  three  classes  of  persons,  to  which  no 
function  is  assigned  in  the  New  Testament,  act  a  conspicuous  part, 
while  the  church  is  wholly  overlooked.  My  reason  for  animadverting 
on  this  procedure  is,  that  in  the  economy  of  modern  dissenters  a  grow- 
ing tendency  may  be  perceived  to  merge  the  church  in  the  cpngrega- 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  397 

lion,  and  to  commit  the  management  of  the  most  weighty  matters  to  a 
liody  of  subscribers  in  preference  to  the  members  ;  an  innovation,  should 
it  generally  prevail,  productive  of  incalculable  evils.  Many  of  those 
U'ho  compose  the  auditors,  in  distinction  from  the  church,  may  possess 
genuine  piety;  but  while  they  persist  in  declining  to  make  a  public 
profession  of  Christ,  it  is  scarcely  possible  for  them  to  give  proof  of  it : 
the  greater  part,  it  is  no  breach  of  candour  to  suppose,  are  men  of  the 
world ;  and  surely  it  requires  little  penetration  to  perceive  the  danger 
which  religion  must  sustain  by  transferring  the  management  of  its  con- 
cerns from  persons  decidedly  religious  to  those  whose  pretensions  to 
interfere  are  founded  solely  on  pecuniary  considerations.  The  pre- 
sumptuous intermeddling  of  worldly,  unsanctified  spirits  with  ecclesias- 
tical concerns  has  been  the  source  of  almost  every  error  in  doctrine, 
and  enormity  in  practice,  that  has  deformed  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity from  the  time  of  Constantine  to  the  present  day  ;  nor  is  dissent 
of  much  importance,  except  as  far  as  it  affords  an  antidote  to  this  evil. 
The  system  which  confounds  the  distinction  between  the  church  and  the 
congregation  has  long  since  been  carried  to  perfection  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian denomination  ;  and  we  all  know  what  preceded  and  what  has  fol- 
lowed that  innovation, — the  decay  of  piety,  the  destruction  of  discipline, 
a  most  melancholy  departure,  in  a  word,  both  in  principle  and  in  prac- 
tice, from  genuine  Christianity. 

No  event  contributed  more  to  make  Mr.  Toller  extensively  known 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  dissenting  connexion  than  the  active  part 
which  he  took  in  promoting  the  objects  of  the  Bible  Society.  Strongly 
impressed  with  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  declaration,  that  "  the  kingdom  of 
God  cometh  not  with  observation,"  and  constitutionally  averse  to  every 
thing  noisy  and  ostentatious,  it  was  rarely  that  he  could  be  prevailed 
upon  to  engage  in  those  popular  religious  societies,  the  existence  of 
which  may  be  said  to  constitute  an  era  in  the  history  of  religion.  Of 
societies  even  formed  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity  in  foreign 
parts  he  was  more  disposed  to  admire  the  zeal  that  animated  the 
exertions  than  to  anticipate  the  success,  having  formed  an  opinion  that 
the  final  triumph  of  the  gospel  over  paganism  was  destined  to  be 
effected  by  the  renewal  of  those  miraculous  gifts  which  attended  its 
first  promulgation. 

But  the  Bible  Society,  by  the  simplicity  of  its  object,  and  the  com- 
prehensive Catholicism  of  its  constitution,  so  consonant  to  the  un- 
bounded liberality  of  his  views,  commanded  his  unqualified  approbation  ; 
and  having  been  chosen  one  of  the  secretaries  for  the  Northern  Aux- 
iliary Branch,  in  the  county  of  Northampton,  from  its  first  formation, 
he  directed  the  entire  force  of  his  mind  to  it;  attending  regularly,  as 
long  as  his  health  would  permit,  the  various  meetings  held  in  the 
vicinity.  The  sensation  produced  by  his  speech  at  the  first  meeting 
at  Northampton,  where  his  grace  the  Duke  of  Grafton  presided,  will 
never  be  forgotten.  Departing  from  the  usual  practice  on  such  occa- 
sions, he  addressed  a  considerable  part  of  it  to  the  noble  chairman, 
contrasting  his  then  situation  with  that  which  he  occupied  in  the  House 
of  Lords  ;  a  task  which,  difl[icult  as  it  was,  he  performed  with  a  dignity. 


398  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

pathos,  and  decorum  that  astonished  and  dehghted  the  audience.  Its 
effect  on  the  duke  himself  was  to  draw  tears  from  his  eyes,  and 
induce  him  to  double  his  original  donation.  In  strokes  of  sudden 
pathos  and  unpolished  grandeur  Mr.  Toller  was  almost  unequalled ; 
and  as  his  whole  soul  was  engaged  in  promoting  the  Bible  Society, 
on  no  occasion  were  his  peculiar  powers  displayed  to  more  advantage- 
It  has  been  already  remarked,  that  missionary  efforts  excited  at 
their  commencement  but  little  of  his  attention  ;  not  because  he  was 
indifferent  to  their  object,  but  from  a  settled  conviction  that  the  conver- 
sion of  the  heathen  was  not  to  be  effected  by  ordinary  means,  but  by 
miraculous  interposition.  Whether  he  entirely  relinquished  that  ex- 
pectation I  am  not  prepared  to  say ;  it  is  certain  his  views  underwent 
some  modification  upon  that  subject.  The  astonishing  progress  of  the 
Bible  Society  in  circulating  the  Scriptures  throughout  the  world, — the 
unparalleled  exertidns  of  Dr.  Carey  and  of  others  in  translating  them' 
into  the  principal  languages  of  the  East,  and  of  the  success  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society  in  Africa  and  the  South  Sea,  where  whole 
tribes  and  nations  have  been  led  by  a  simultaneous  impulse  to  aban- 
don their  idols,  and  to  worship  the  one  living  and  true  God,  opened  a 
new  prospect,  and  convinced  him  that  the  general  emancipation  of  the 
pagan  world  from  the  power  of  darkness  might  be  accomplished  with- 
out that  supernatural  agency  which  he  formerly  deemed  indispensable. 
A  pertinacious  adherence  to  one  mode  of  thinking,  in  spite  of  superior 
evidence,  was  no  part  of  his  character;  and  though  not  very  apt  to 
change  his  opinion  on  subjects  on  which  he  had  long  exercised  his 
mind,  his  firmness  was  untinctured  with  obstinacy. 

During  the  greater  portion  of  his  life  he  was  occasionally  liable  to 
great  depression  of  spirits  ;  but  about  seven  years  previous  to  its  close, 
in  consequence  of  a  sudden  interruption  of  the  profuse  perspiration 
which  had  constantly  attended  his  public  exercises,  and  which  was 
thrown  back  upon  the  system,  he  sunk  into  such  a  state  of  despond- 
ency as  disqualified  him,  for  some  time,  for  the  discharge  of  his 
ministerial  functions.  His  mind,  during  this  season,  was  harassed 
with  the  most  distressing  apprehensions  of  a  future  state,  and  pos- 
sessed with  such  a  view  of  his  pollution  in  the  sight  of  a  holy  God, 
that  he  was  tempted  to  suppose  all  his  past  experience  in  religion  was 
delusive.  Of  his  state  of  mind  during  this  melancholy  period,  I  know 
not  whether  he  has  left  any  written  account ;  but  I  recollect,  when 
adverting  to  it  in  familiar  convei-sation,  he  described  it  as  a  year  of 
almost  incessant  weeping  and  prayer.  Though  none  who  were  ac- 
quainted with  him  will  entertain  a  doubt  of  the  sincerity  of  his  piety 
previous  to  that  afflictive  visitation,  as  little  can  it  be  doubted  that  it 
was  a  source  of  great  spiritual  improvement,  that  he  "  did  business  in 
the  mighty  waters,"  and  that  he  was  brought  to  a  more  profound 
knowledge  of  himself,  and  a  more  deep  and  humble  reliance  on  the 
power  and  grace  of  the  Redeemer,  than  he  had  before  experienced. 
From  that  time  his  discourses  were  more  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
peculiarities  of  the  gospel,  his  doctrinal  views  more  clear  and  precise, 
and  his  whole  conversation  and  deportment  such  as  announced  a  rapid 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  399 

advance  in  spirituality.  Tiiat  generality  in  his  statefments  of  revealed 
truth  which  was  the  consequence  of  his  education  at  Daventry,  and 
which  almost  invariably  characterized  the  pupils  of  that  seminary, 
totally  disappeared,  and  he  attained  "  to  all  the  riches  of  the  full 
assurance  of  the  mystery  of  God  the  Father  and  of  Christ."  Though 
he  survived  that  affliction  several  years,  it  probably  shortened  his  life, 
by  giving  that  concussion  to  his  nervous  system  from  which  he  never 
perfectly  recovered ;  and  from  that  time  the  circulation  of  his  blood 
appears  to  have  been  less  regular,  and  the  depression  of  his  spirits 
more  frequent  than  before* 

In  the  year  1813,  the  friends  of  Mr.  Toller  determined  to  carry  into 
effect  an  idea  which  had  before  been  suggested,  that  of  raising  a  sum 
of  money  to  be  presented  as  a  testinrony  of  their  esteem,-  as  well  as 
with  a  view  to  lay  the  basis  of  a  permanent  provision  for  his  family. 
As  soon  as  he  had  intelligence  of  the  design,  he,  in  a  letter  to  a  gen- 
tleman who  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  afl'air,  communicated  very 
freely  his  sentiments  on  the  occasion,  in  which,  without  positively  de- 
clining it,  he  suggested  some  objections  to  the  measure,  intimating  his 
fear  that,  by  occasioning  a  diversity  of  sentiment  on  its  propriety,  it 
might  destroy  that  harmony  and  cordiality  of  feeling  which  had  so 
long  prevailed  in  his  connexions.  It  breslhes  such  a  spirit  of  tender- 
ness, humility,  and  modesty,  that  I  cannot  doubt  the  reader  will  be 
gratified  by  its  insertion,*  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  add,  that  the 
apprehensions  and  scruples  which  arose  from  his  extreme  delicacy 
were  overruled,  and  a  sum  amounting  to  nearly  a  thousand  pounds 
was  contributed,  with  a  proni()titude  and  alacrity  which  did  equal 
honour  to  those  who  conferred  and  to  him  who  received  tlie  favour^ 
When  it  is  recollected  that  he  had  repeatedly  resisted  the  most  earnest 
solicitations  to  remove  to  a  superior  situation,  and  was  charged  with 
the  eare  of  a  numerous  and  increasing  family,  the  whole  transaction 
cannot  fail  to  impress  the  reader  witli  admiration  of  the  liberality  in 
which  the  donation  originated,  and  of  tire  delicate  reluctance  with 
which  it  was  accepted.  The  desire  of  wealth  never  took  possession 
of  his  mind.  Contented  and  thankful  for  that  decent  competence 
which  he  was  at  no  time  sufi'ered  to  want,  he  was  frugal  without 
being  parsimonious,  and  generous  without  profusion. 

The  system  of  his  life  was  eminently  uniform  and  tranquil,  distin- 
guished by  few  of  tlie  events  and  vicissitudes  which  are  adapted  in 
the  recital  to  amuse  or  to  agitate  the  reader.  In  the  summer  months 
he  frequently  rose  at  a  very  early  hour,  and  was  often  nun  in  his 
solitary  walks  in  the  neighbouring  woods,  by  peasants  who  were 
"  going  forth  to  their  work  and  to  their  labour  till  the  evening."  In 
these  silent  and  retired  scenes  1k3  took  great  delight ;  ami  from  his 
observation  of  the  beauties  of  nature,  and  the  operations  of  husbandry, 
he  frequently  derived  those  images  and  illustrations  which  furnished  a 
rich  repast  for  his  audience.  Possessed  of  great  sensibility,  and  a 
rich  and  lively  imagination,  he  was  accustomed  more  than  almost  any 

*  See  p.  409. 


400  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOT,I,ER. 

other  man  to  clothe  the  abstractions  of  religion  in  the  garb  of  sensible 
images,  to  illustrate  his  conceptions  by  frequent  allusions  to  the  most 
striking  scenes  in  nature  and  in  life.  What  is  said  of  our  Lord  may 
almost  be  affirmed  of  him,  that  he  taught  the  people  in  parables,  and 
without  a  parable  he  spake  not  unto  them.  Truth  compels  me  to 
confess  that  he  sometimes  carried  this  peculiarity  to  excess  ;  but  along 
with  this  concession  it  is  but  justice  to  observe,  that  the  habit  of 
appealing  to  the  imagination  was  not  only  admirably  adapted  to  a 
numerous  class  of  subjects,  but  greatly  contributed  to  that  power  of 
delectation  which  so  eminently  distinguished  his  ministry.  His  dis- 
courses were  never  vapid,  tedious,  or  uninteresting.  A  certain  intensity 
of  devotional  feeling,  a  deep  and  solemn  pathos,  accompanied  with 
tones  expressive  of  the  greatest  sensibilhy,  sustained  the  attention  of 
the  audience  in  full  vigour. 

It  was  his  custom,  during  the  greater  part  of  his  ministry,  to  devote 
the  morning  service  to  exposition,  in  the  course  of  which  he  went  very 
much  at  large  through  the  life  of  Moses  and  of  Christ,  each  of  which 
occupied  him  several  years.  A  great  part  of  both  Testaments  was 
thus  brought  before  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  He  was  strongly  im- 
pressed with  a  conviction  of  the  advantages  resulting  from  that  mode 
of  instruction,  by  its  affording  a  more  ample  variety  of  topics,  impart- 
ing a  more  profound  and  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures, 
and  enabling  the  teacher  of  religion  to  introduce  many  practical 
remarks,  many  minute  points  and  details,  which,  however  useful  in  the 
conduct  of  life,  would  with  difficulty  find  a  place  in  a  regular  discourse. 
It  is  evident  from  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  that  this  was  the  primi- 
tive mode  of  preaching,  handed  down  to  the  Christian  Church  from  the 
Jewish  synagogue ;  and  wherever  a  people  are  more  desirous  of 
acquiring  real  knowledge  than  of  a  momentary  excitement,  it  will  be 
decidedly  preferred.  Unhappily,  the  taste  of  most  hearers  is  the 
reverse :  they  are  a  sort  of  spiritual  epicures,  who  prefer  a  poignant 
and  stimulating  to  a  simple  and  nourishing  diet,  and  would  infinitely 
rather  have  their  passi^ons  awakened  than  their  conscience  directed, 
or  their  understanding  enlarged. 

For  this  reason,  expositions  will  generally  be  preferred  by  the  intel- 
ligent part  of  an  audience,  and  sermons  by  a  promiscuous  multitude. 
The  peculiar  talents  of  Mr.  Toller  qualified  him,  above  most  men,  for 
combining  the  advantages  of  both  methods,  by  infusing  that  degree  of 
pathos  and  animation  into  his  expository  lectures  which  rendered  them 
little  less  affecting  than  his  sermons.  Though  he  possessed,  there  is 
reason  to  believe,  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  in  their 
original  tongues,  from  condescension  to  his  audience,  and  his  extreme 
abhorrence  of  whatever  savours  of  pedantry,  he  was  yet  sparing  of 
critical  remarks,  and  availed  himself  less  of  the  advantages  of  a 
liberal  education  and  of  incessant  reading,  for  exact  interpretations  of 
the  sacred  volume,  than  he  might  with  unexceptionable  propriety  have 
done.  His  expositions  were  practical  and  popular,  not  critical  or 
elaborate.  In  order  to  preserve  a  unity  of  design,  and  to  perpetuate 
an  identity  of  impression,  it  was  his  usual  practice  to  select  some 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  401 

portion  of  the  paragraph  which  he  had  been  expounding  in  the  former 
part  of  the  day  as  the  basis  of  the  afternoon  discourse. 

It  would  be  great  injustice  to  the  memory  of  my  invaluable  friend, 
while  speaking  of  his  ministerial  qualifications,  not  to  mention  his 
striking  superiority  in  the  discharge  of  the  devotional  part  of  his 
public  functions,  his  almost  unrivalled  eminence  in  prayer.  His 
addresses  to  the  Supreme  Being  united  every  excellence  of  which 
they  are  susceptible:  they  were  copious  without  being  redundant,  fer- 
vent without  extravagance,  elevated  without  the  least  appearance  of 
turgidity  or  pomp.  He  poured  out  his  whole  soul  in  an  easy, 
unaffected  flow  of  devotional  sentiment ;  adoration  seemed  to  be  his 
natural  element ;  and,  as  he  appeared  to  lose  all  consciousness  of 
any  other  presence  but  that  of  the  Deity,  he  seldom  failed  to  raise  his 
audience  to  the  same  elevation,  to  make  them  realize  the  feelings  of 
Jacob,  when  he  exclaimed,  "  How  awful  is  this  place !"  If  this 
encomium  admits  of  any  abatement,  it  must  be  on  the  ground  of  their 
length,  which  was  not  unfrequently  equal  to  that  of  his  sermons.  Nor 
was  he  less  admirable  in  family  devotion  :  many  a  time  have  I  been 
surprised  at  the  promptitude,  ease,  and  grace  with  which  he  would 
advert  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  family,  or  of  its  principal 
members,  with  an  allusion  sometimes  to  minute  incidents,  without 
once  impairing  the  solemnity,  or  detracting  from  the  dignity,  which 
ought  ever  to  accompany  a  religious  exercise.  His  petitions  in  behalf 
of  each  individual  were  stamped  with  something  exclusively  proper  to 
his  situation  or  character,  so  that  while  he  was  concurring  in  an  act 
of  social  worship,  he  felt,  ere  he  was  aware,  as  if  he  were  left  alone 
with  God. 

In  his  public  discourses  he  was  apt  to  limit  himself  too  much  for 
time,  either  to  do  full  justice  to  his  subject,  or  to  prolong  the  impres- 
sion until  it  had  completely  incorporated  itself  with  the  mind  of  the 
hearer :  the  curtain  Avas  let  fall  at  the  moment  the  scene  was  most 
interesting,  and  the  current  of  emotion  suddenly  checked  and  inter- 
rupted when  it  was  just  rising  to  its  height.  The  mind  is  so  constituted, 
that  in  order  to  produce  a  permanent  effect,  a  train  of  thought,  however 
interesting,  must  occupy  the  attention  for  a  considerable  space  :  the 
soul  kindles  by  degrees,  and  must  pass  through  successive  gradations 
of  feeling  before  it  reaches  the  utmost  elevation  of  subhme  and 
pathetic  emotion.  Hence  it  is  that  the  most  powerful  speakers,  in  every 
age,  have  had  recourse  to  a  frequent  repetition  of  the  same  arguments 
and  topics,  quite  useless  on  any  other  account  than  its  tendency  to  prolong 
the  impression,  and  to  render  it  by  that  means  more  durable  and 
intense.  Had  Mr.  Toller  paid  more  attention  to  this  principle  of  our 
constitution,  I  will  not  say  he  would  have  been  a  more  interesting  and 
delightful  preacher, — for  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  his  sermons 
could  have  been  much  more  impressive  than  they  frequently  were, 
during  their  delivery, — but  their  power  over  the  audience  would  probably 
have  been  more  lasting  and  more  salutary.  The  defect  which  we 
have  taken  the  liberty  of  noticing  may  perhaps  be  ascribed  to  the 
habit  of  writing  iiis  sermons,  a  practice  more  favourable  to  accuracy 

Vol.  II.— C  c 


402  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

of  language  and  condensation  of  thought  than  to  copiousness  and 
expansion. 

But  it  is  time  to  return  to  our  narrative,  which  a  few  words  will 
despatch;  During  several  of  the  last  years  of  his  life,  our  excellent 
friend  exhibited  symptoms  of  a  tendency  to  apoplexy ;  and  in  the 
year  1819,  as  he  was  going  to  his  study,  he  was  seized  with  a  fit, 
which  appeared  instantly  to  deprive  him  of  all  sensation,  to  the  inexpres- 
sible alarm  of  his  family.  But  before  medical  aid  could  be  procured, 
his  bodily  strength  and  the  possession  of  his  mental  powers  were 
restored,  and  in  two  hours  he  displayed  no  indications  of  the  awful 
event,  except  a  degree  of  lassitude,  and  a  slight  contortion  in  the  muscles 
about  the  mouth,  both  of  which  shortly  disappeared.  This  circum- 
stance, it  is  remarked  by  one  of  his  friends,  afforded  a  melancholy 
confirmation  of  their  fears.  They  had  long  apprehended  the  seeds  of 
apoplexy  were  lurking  in  his  constitution,  so  that  they  looked  upon 
this  visitation  as  a  voice  from  God,  preparing  them,  by  no  doubtful 
warning,  for  the  speedy  dissolution  of  a  connexion  which  had  long 
been  the  source  of  so  much  improvement  and  delight. 

The  circumstances  attending  the  last  scene  of  his  life,  I  cannot  give 
better  than  in  the  words  of  a  respectable  friend  from  whom  I  received 
the  account.  "  He  had,"  says  the  writer  of  the  following  narrative, 
"  for  many  years  supposed  it  probable  he  should  be  subject  to  apoplexy 
or  palsy.  His  fears  fixed  on  the  latter  :  and  to  his  nearest  friends  he 
has  often  said,  in  allusion  to  these  apprehensions,  '  I  do  not  fear, 
on  the  whole,  to  die  ;  nor  do  I  fear,  I  hope,  to  suffer,  if  I  may  but  have 
the  needful  support  from  God ;  but  if  I  am  doomed  to  a  long  scene  of 
suffering,  and  to  become  a  burden  to  myself  and  friends,  I  do  fear  that 
faith  and  patience  may  fail,  and  that  I  may  at  last  dishonour  the  cause 
I  have  preached,  and  the  Master  whom  I  serve  and  love.'  The  attack 
which  has  been  mentioned  removed  the  fear  of  palsy  almost  entirely  :  he 
was  convinced  the  disorder  was  apoplexy  ;  and  the  consequent  con- 
viction that  such  probably  would  be  his  end, — that,  without  pain  or  long 
aflliction,  he  should,  when  his  great  Master  had  done  with  his  ser- 
vices, be  thus  kindly  dismissed, — had  an  inmiediate  and  an  exhilarating 
effect  upon  his  mind.  After  this,  he  had  frequent  seizures  of  the  same 
kind,  which  lasted  for  a  very  short  time,  seldom  more  than  five  minutes 
in  the  whole  ;  but  they  left  evident  traces  on  his  bodily  frame,  though 
they  had  no  other  efi'ect  upon  his  mind  than  to  confirm  his  hope  of 
immediate  dismission  '  when  his  work  was  done.'  Near  the  close 
of  the  year  1820,  one  of  these  attacks  left  him  so  weak  and  shattered 
in  constitution  as  to  convince  him  he  should  never  be  able  to  resume 
his  full  pastoral  duties  again  ;  and  he,  in  a  very  affectionate  manner, 
communicated  this  conviction  to  his  people.  They  immediately  sought 
an  assistant,  and  most  naturally  turned  their  attention  to  the  son  of 
their  beloved  pastor,  who  had  been  preaching  at  Wem,  in  Shropshire, 
for  some  time,  but  at  that  moment  was  visiting  his  father ;  to  whom 
he  had  hurried  in  dreadful  doubt,  from  the  account  that  he  had  received, 
whether  he  should  see  his  face  any  more.  From  this  attack  he 
gradually  recovered,  and  continued  for  some  weeks  to  gain  strength. 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  403 

On  Sunday  tlie  25lh  of  February,  he  preached  in  the  morning  with 
all  his  usual  animation,  from  Isa.  Ixiii.  7-13,  and  remarked,  at  the 
close  of  the  discourse,  what  encouragement  this  passage  affords  the 
widow  and  the  fatherless  to  put  their  trust  in  God,  finishing  his  last 
public  discourse  with  these  words  : — 

'To  thee  our  infant  race  we  leave  ; 
Them  may  iheir  lathers'  God  receive, 
That  ages  yet  unborn  may  raise 
Successive  hymns  of  humble  praise.' 

He  spent  the  evening  surrounded  by  his  family,  and  conversing  with 
his  children  in  a  strain  of  cheerful  piety  ;  and  after  a  night  of  sound 
repose,  arose  as  well  as  usual  the  next  morning.  About  noon  leaving 
the  parlour,  he  was  found  a  few  minutes  after  in  an  apoplectic  fit,  or  a 
seizure  resembling  apoplexy.  Several  medical  men  repaired  to  the 
spot,  but  life  was  extinct." 

His  remains  were  interred  in  the  burying-ground  belonging  to  the 
meeting-house,  on  Thursday  the  8th  of  March.  On  that  occasion  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Horsey,  of  Northampton,  engaged  in  prayer ;  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Edwards,  of  the  same  place,  delivered  the  funeral  oration  ;  and  the 
writer  of  these  lines  endeavoured  to  improve  the  providence  by  a 
suitable  discourse.  A  considerable  number  of  the  clergy  in  the  vicinity, 
and  nearly  all  the  dissenting  ministers  of  the  county,  attended  the 
procession,  which  was  rendered  deeply  affecting  by  the  tears  of  a  vast 
assembly,  consisting  of  all  the  respectable  inhabitants  of  the  town, 
who  felt  on  this  occasion  that  they  had  lost  a  father  and  a  friend. 

Having  already  glanced  at  the  most  distinguishing  features  in  the 
character  of  Mr.  Toller,  an  elaborate  delineation  of  it  will  neither  be 
necessary  nor  expected. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  though  he  invariably  delivered  his  sermons 
from  notes,  to  which  he  strictly  adhered,  ?iis  style  of  composition  was 
eminently  colloquial;  it  had  all  the  careless  ease,  negligence,  and 
occasional  inaccuracy  which  might  be  looked  for  in  an  extemporaneous 
address.  He  appears  never  to  have  turned  his  attention  to  compo- 
sition as  an  art ;  and  the  force  and  beauty  with  which  he  sometimes 
expressed  himself  was  the  spontaneous  eflfect  of  a  vivid  imagination, 
accompanying  the  truest  sensibility.  His  most  affecting  illustrations 
(and  the  power  of  illustrating  a  subject  was  his  distinguishing  faculty) 
were  drawn  from  the  most  familiar  scenes  of  life  ;  and,  after  he  became 
a  father,  not  unfrequently  from  the  incidents  which  attach  to  that  relation. 
An  example  of  this  (supplied  by  the  friend  whose  words  have  been 
already  quoted)  will  afford  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  manner  in 
which  he  availed  himself  of  images  drawn  from  the  domestic  circle. 
His  text  was  Isaiah  xxvii.  5  : — "  Let  him  take  hold  of  my  strength, 
that  he  may  make  peace  with  me  ;  and  he  shall  make  peace  with  me." — 
*'  I  think,"  said  he, "  I  can  convey  the  meaning  of  this  passage  so 
that  every  one  may  understand  it,  by  what  took  place  in  my  own 
family  within  these  few  days.  One  of  my  little  children  had  committed 
a  fault  for  which  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  chastise  him.  I  called  him 
to  me,  explained  to  him  the  evil  of  what  he  had  done,  and  told  him 

Cc2 


404  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

how  grieved  I  was  that  I  must  punish  him  for  it.  He  heard  me  in 
silence,  and  then  rushed  into  my  arms,  and  burst  into  tears.  I  could 
sooner  have  cut  off  my  arm  than  have  then  struck  him  for  his  fault :, 
he  had  taken  hold  of  my  strength,  and  he  had  made  peace  with  me." 

He  possessed  great  originality,  not  so  much,  however,  in  the  stamina 
of  his  thoughts,  as  in  the  cast  of  his  imagination.  He  seldom  reminded 
you  of  any  other  speaker  to  whom  he  bore  the  slightest  resemblance ; 
his  excellences  and  his  defects  rendered  it  equally  evident  that  he  had 
formed  himself  on  no  preceding  model, — that  he  yielded  without 
restraint  to  the  native  bias  of  his  character  and  genius.  The  effect 
of  imitation  would,  undoubtedly,  have  been  the  acquisition  of  more 
elegance  and  correctness,  probably  at  the  expense  of  higher  qualities 
— of  that  noble  simplicity  and  careless  grandeur  which  were  the 
distinguishing  features  of  his  eloquence.  In  the  power  of  awakening 
pathetic  emotions  he  far  excelled  any  speaker  it  has  been  my  lot  to 
hear.  Often  have  I  seen  a  whole  congregation  melted  under  him  like 
wax  before  the  sun :  my  own  feelings,  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
have  approached  to  an  overpowering  agitation.  The  effect  was 
produced  apparently  with  perfect  ease.  No  elaborate  preparation,  no 
peculiar  vehemence  or  intensity  of  tones,  no  artful  accumulation  of 
pathetic  images  led  the  way :  the  mind  was  captivated  and  subdued, 
it  scarcely  knew  how.  Though  it  will  not  be  imagined  that  this 
triumph  of  popular  eloquence  could  be  habitual,  much  less  constant,  it 
may  be  safely  affirmed  that  a  large  proportion  of  Mr.  Toller's  discourses 
afforded  some  indication  of  these  powers. 

Of  the  personal  character  of  the  subject  of  these  memoirs  it  may 
be  observed,  in  general,  that  it  was  marked  by  none  of  the  eccentri- 
cities which  are  supposed  to  be  the  appendages  of  genius,  and  that  it 
consisted  of  a  combination  of  amiable  and  pleasing,  rather  than  of 
striking  qualities.  Candour,  in  all  the  modes  of  its  operation,  was  a 
conspicuous  feature.  As  his  affection  was  extended  to  all,  without 
exception,  who  "  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity,"  so  he  was 
particularly  ingenious  in  putting  the  best  construction  on  unfavourable 
appearances,  in  extenuating  what  he  could  not  justify,  and  in  discovering 
reasons  for  hoping  well  of  those  whom  the  honest  but  untempered 
zeal  of  many  good  men  would  prompt  them  to  condemn.  It  was  his 
delight  to  narrow  the  grounds  of  debate  among  sincere  Christians,  to 
multiply  the  points  of  contact,  and  to  detect  the  indications  of  spiritual 
consanguinity  and  of  common  origin,  amid  the  discrepances  which 
arise  from  real  diversity  of  sentiment  in  some  instances,  and  a  diversity 
of  language  in  more.  Whether  this  benevolent  solicitude  to  compre- 
hend within  the  pale  of  salvation  as  many  as  possible  may  not  some- 
times have  led  him  to  extenuate  the  danger  of  speculative  error  too 
much,  may  be  fairly  questioned.  Since  the  charity  which  the  Scriptures 
so  earnestly  inculcate  consists  in  a  real  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of 
others,  not  in  thinking  well  of  their  state,  he  cannot  be  justly  accused 
of  a  violation  of  its  dictates  who  contends  that  those  doctrines  are 
essential  to  salvation  on  which  his  own  hopes  of  it  are  exclusively 
foimded. 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  405 

There  is  another  branch  of  candour  which  was  eminently  exemplified 
in  the  subject  of  the  preceding  Memoir.  His  tenderness  in  whatever 
concerned  individual  reputation  was  remarkable.  He  felt  as  much 
solicitude  about  the  character  of  the  absent  as  the  feelings  of  the 
present :  the  wanton  depreciation  of  their  intellect  or  their  virtue  gave 
him  visible  pain,  and  where  he  could  not  speak  favourably  of  either  he 
was  silent.  Having  no  passion  for  display,  he  was  never  tempted  to 
sacrifice  his  friend  to  his  jest ;  his  gayest  sallies  never  inflicted  a  pang 
nor  occasioned  a  blush.  His  immour  was  a  gentle  and  lambent  flame, 
which  cheered  and  exhilarated,  but  never  scorched.  Hence  few  men 
possessed  more  friends  or  fewer  enemies :  it  may  be  doubted  whether, 
among  the  numerous  lists  of  the  former,  he  lost  the  esteem  of  one. 
The  friends  of  his  youth  who  did  not  descend  into  the  grave  before 
him  were  the  delight  and  solace  of  his  age  ;  and  in  proportion  as  their 
ranks  were  thinned,  he  wisely  consulted  his  happiness  by  cultivating 
the  afl'ection  of  a  succeeding  generation,  by  which  he  escaped  that 
solitude  and  desertion  which  is  the  lot  of  those  who  shut  their  hearts 
against  new  attachments,  neglect  the  good  within  their  reach  in  a 
hopeless  attempt  to  grasp  a  phantom,  and  perversely  refuse  to  attach 
a  value  to  any  other  pleasures  than  those  which  have  withered  under 
the  blast  of  death. 

It  was  not  his  practice  to  devote  much  of  his  time  to  ministerial 
visits.  In  justification  of  this  part  of  his  conduct  he  was  accustomed 
to  quote  the  apostolic  injunction :  "  Is  any  sick  among  you  ?  let  him 
call  for  the  elders  of  the  church,"  &c.  He  possessed,  or  fancied  he 
possessed,  little  talent  for  the  ordinary  topics  of  religious  conversation  ; 
and  his  extreme  aversion  to  the  ostentation  of  spirituality  rendered  him 
somewhat  reluctant  to  engage  in  those  recitals  of  Christian  experience 
in  which  many  professors  so  much  delight.  There  adhered  to  his 
natural  disposition  a  delicacy  and  reserve  which  rendered  it  impossible 
for  him  to  disclose,  except  in  the  most  confidential  intercourse,  the 
secret  movements  and  aspirations  of  his  heart  towards  the  Best  of  beings. 

He  possessed,  notwithstanding  this,  a  high  relish  for  the  pleasures 
of  society.  An  inexhaustible  fund  of  anecdote,  which  he  was  wont 
to  relate  with  a  dry  and  comic  humour,  rendered  him  in  his  livelier 
moments  a  most  fascinating  companion.  A  great  versatility  of  features 
combined  with  much  power  of  imitation  to  give  a  peculiar  poignance 
to  the  different  incidents  of  his  story.  His  imitations,  however,  were 
specific,  not  individual,  seldom  if  ever  descending  to  personal  mimicry — • 
an  illiberal  art,  more  befitting  the  buflbon  than  the  Christian  or  the 
gentleman.  Mr.  Toller's  indulgence  of  these  sallies  was  occasional, 
not  habitual ;  they  formed  at  times  the  seasoning  of  his  conversation, 
not  the  staple  commodity ;  and  never  were  they  carried  so  far  as  to 
impair  the  dignity  of  his  character  or  the  reverence  inspired  by  his 
virtues.  They  were  invariably  such  as  a  virgin  might  listen  to  without 
a  blush,  and  a  saint  without  a  sigh. 

Mr.  Toller  was  much  of  a  practical  philosopher.  Deeply  convinced 
of  the  vanity  and  imperfection  of  the  present  state,  which  he  considered 
less  as  a  scene  of  enjoyment  than  as  a  perpetual  conflict  with  un- 


406  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

avoidable  evils,  he  vi^as  always  disposed  to  make  the  best  of  passing 
events  :  to  yield  where  resistance  was  unavailing,  to  beguile  the 
sorrows  which  he  could  not  remove,  and  by  setting  the  good  against 
the  evil,  to  blunt  the  arrows  of  adversity  and  disarm  disappointment 
of  its  sting.  Possessing  a  genuine  but  not  a  sickly  sensibility,  he 
[showed  it  rather]  in  enduring  the  vicissitudes  of  life  with  equanimity, 
than  in  any  excessive  delicacy  or  refinement  of  feeling. 

"  Speak  evil  of  no  man,"  is  an  injunction  of  which  he  never  lost 
sight ;  and  without  assuming  the  severity  of  reproof,  he  well  knew 
how,  by  an  expressive  silence,  to  mark  his  aversion  to  scandal.  He 
showed  a  constant  solicitude  to  give  no  offence  to  Jew  or  gentile,  or 
the  household  of  God.  Hence  the  efficacy  of  his  ministry  was  never 
obstructed  or  impaired  by  the  personal  prejudice  of  his  hearers,  who 
regarded  him,  not  only  with  the  deference  due  to  a  zealous  and  en- 
lightened teacher,  but  with  the  affection  of  a  friend.  He  was  an 
ardent  lover  of  peace.  On  no  occasion  did  he  offend  by  haughtiness, 
negligence,  the  indulgence  of  a  capricious  humour,  or  the  saUies  of 
intemperate  anger.  It  has  been  asserted  by  some  that  knew  him  in 
early  life,  that  his  original  disposition  was  hasty  and  irritable.  If  this 
was  the  case,  he  affords  a  striking  example  of  the  conquest  of  religion 
and  philosophy  over  the  early  tendencies  of  nature,  since  few  men 
were  equally  distinguished  by  an  unaffected  sweetness  and  serenity 
of  temper. 

During  every  period  of  my  acquaintance  with  him,  he  exhibited  the 
most  decided  indications  of  piety ;  but  in  the  latter  stages  of  his  life 
this  part  of  his  character  shone  with  distinguished  lustre :  devotion 
appeared  to  be  his  habitual  element.  Seldom  has  religion  presented 
more  of  the  lovely  and  attractive  than  in  the  character  of  Mr.  Toller : 
if  it  did  not  inflame  him  with  the  zeal  which  distinguished  more  active 
and  enterprising  spirits,  it  melted  him  into  love,  clothed  him  with 
humility,  and  decked  him,  in  an  eminent  degree,  with  the  "  ornaments 
of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit." 

It  has  rarely  been  the  privilege  of  one  town,  and  that  not  of  con- 
siderable extent,  to  possess  at  the  same  time,  and  for  so  long  a  period, 
two  such  eminent  men  as  Mr.  Toller  and  Mr.  Fuller.  Their  merits 
as  Christian  ministers  were  so  equal,  and  yet  so  different,  that  the 
exercise  of  their  religious  functions  in  the  same  place  was  as  little 
adapted  to  produce  jealousy  as  if  they  had  moved  in  distant  spheres. 
The  predominant  feature  in  the  intellectual  character  of  Mr.  Fuller 
was  the  power  of  discrimination,  by  which  he  detected  the  minutest 
shades  of  difference  among  objects  which  most  minds  would  confound  : 
Mr.  Toller  excelled  in  exhibiting  the  common  sense  of  mankind  in  a 
new  and  impressive  form.  Mr.  Fuller  never  appeared  to  so  much 
advantage  as  when  occupied  in  detecting  sophistry,  repelling  objections, 
and  ascertaining  with  a  microscopic  accuracy  the  exact  boundaries  of 
truth  and  error :  Mr.  Toller  attached  his  attention  chiefly  to  those 
parts  of  Christianity  which  come  most  into  contact  with  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  feelings,  over  which  he  exerted  a  sovereign  ascendency. 
Mr.  Fuller  convinced  by  his  arguments ;  Mr.  Toller  subdued  by  his 


MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER.  407 

pathos.  The  former  made  his  hearers  feel  the  grasp  of  his  intellect ; 
the  latter  the  contagion  of  his  sensibility.  Mr.  Fuller's  discourses 
identified  themselves,  after  they  were  heard,  with  trains  of  thought ; 
Mr.  Toller's  with  trains  of  emotion.  The  illustrations  employed  by 
Mr.  Fuller  (for  he  also  excelled  in  illustration)  were  generally  made 
to  subserve  the  clearer  comprehension  of  his  subject ;  those  of  Mr. 
Toller  consisted  chiefly  of  appeals  to  the  imagination  and  the  heart. 
Mr.  Fuller's  ministry  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  detect  hypocrites,  to 
expose  fallacious  pretensions  to  religion,  and  to  separate  the  precious 
from  the  vile ;  he  sat  as  "  the  refiner's  fire  and  the  fuller's  soap :"  Mr. 
Toller  was  most  in  his  element  when  exhibiting  the  consolations  of 
Christ,  dispelling  the  fears  of  death,  and  painting  the  prospects  of 
eternity.  Both  were  original :  but  the  originality  of  Mr.  Fuller 
appeared  chiefly  in  his  doctrinal  statements ;  that  of  Mr.  Toller  in  his 
practical  remarks.  The  former  was  unquestionably  most  conversant 
with  speculative  truth  ;  the  latter  perhaps  possessed  the  deeper  insight 
into  the  human  heart. 

Nor  were  the  characters  of  these  eminent  men,  within  the  limits  of 
that  moral  excellence  which  was  the  attribute  of  both,  less  diversified 
than  their  mental  endowments.  Mr.  Fuller  was  chiefly  distinguished 
by  the  qualities  which  command  veneration ;  Mr.  Toller  by  those 
which  excite  love.  Laborious,  zealous,  intrepid,  Mr.  Fuller  passed 
through  a  thousand  obstacles  in  the  pursuit  of  objects  of  public  interest 
and  utility ;  Mr.  Toller  loved  to  repose,  delighting  and  delighted,  in 
the  shade  of  domestic  privacy.  The  one  lived  for  the  world ;  the  other 
for  the  promotion  of  the  good  of  his  congregation,  his  family,  and 
friends.  An  intense  zeal  for  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  sustained  by  industry  that  never  tired,  a  resolution  not  to  be 
shaken,  and  integrity  incapable  of  being  warped,  conjoined  to  a  certain 
austerity  of  manner,  were  the  leading  characteristics  of  Mr.  Fuller : 
gentleness,  humility,  and  modesty,  those  of  Mr.  Toller.  The  secretary 
of  the  Baptist  Mission  attached,  in  my  opinion,  too  much  importance 
to  a  speculative  accuracy  of  sentiment ;  while  the  subject  of  this 
Memoir  leaned  to  the  contrary  extreme.  Mr.  Fuller  was  too  prone  to 
infer  the  character  of  men  from  their  creed ;  Mr.  Toller  to  lose  sight 
of  their  creed  in  their  character.  Between  persons  so  dissimilar,  it 
was  next  to  impossible  a  very  close  and  confidential  intimacy  should 
subsist :  a  sincere  admiration  of  each  other's  talents,  and  esteem  for 
the  virtues  which  equally  adorned  them  both,  secured  without  inter- 
ruption, for  more  than  thirty  years,  those  habits  of  kind  and  respectful 
intercourse  which  had  the  happiest  effect  in  promotuig  the  harmony 
of  their  connexions  and  the  credit  of  religion. 

Much  as  Mr.  Fuller  was  lamented  by  the  religious  public  in  general, 
and  especially  in  his  own  denomination,  I  have  reason  to  believe  there 
Avas  not  a  single  individual  out  of  the  circle  of  his  immediate  relatives 
who  was  more  deeply  affected  by  his  death  than  Mr.  Toller.  From 
that  moment  he  felt  himself  nearer  to  eternity ;  he  accepted  the  event 
as  a  most  impressive  warning  of  his  own  dissolution ;  and  while  a 
thousand  solemn  and  aff*ecting  recollections  accompanied  the  retrospect 


408  MEMOIR  OF  MR.  THOMAS  TOLLER. 

of  a  connexion  which  had  so  long  and  so  happily  subsisted,  one  of  his 
favourite  occupations  was  to  revive  a  mental  intercourse  by  the  frequent 
perusal  of  the  sermons  of  his  deceased  friend.  It  is  thus  that  the 
friendship  of  high  and  sanctified  spirits  loses  nothing  by  death  but  its 
alloy :  failings  disappear,  and  the  virtues  of  those  whose  "  faces  we 
shall  behold  no  more"  appear  greater  and  more  sacred  when  beheld 
through  the  shades  of  the  sepulchre.  Their  spirits  are  now  united 
before  the  Throne ;  and  if  any  event  in  this  sublunary  scene  may  be 
supposed  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  subject  of  this  Memoir,  in  his 
present  mysterious  elevation,  it  is  probably  the  desire  that  the  child  of 
his  prayers  who  now  succeeds  him  in  his  office  may  surpass  his 
example,  and  be  the  honoured  instrument  of  turning  more  sinners  to 
righteousness,  and  of  conducting  more  sons  to  glory,  than  himself. 


MR.    TOLLER'S    LETTER, 

Referred  to  in  page  399. 


My  Dear  Sir, 

It  would  be  idle  in  me  to  affect  ignorance  of  the  business  which  has  principally 
occasioned  your  visit  to  Kettering  just  now  ;  and  though  it  may  seem  indelicate 
to  interfere  during  the  discussion  of  that  business,  yet  I  cannot  with  an  easy  mind 
suffer  the  intended  meeting  to  take  place  on  Monday,  without  offering  a  few 
observations  on  what  may  be  called,  in  parliamentary  language,  "  the  previous 
question." 

Considering  the  proposed  measure  as  originating  with  you  and  some  other 
friends,  I  can  view  it  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  noble  instance  of  the  most  un- 
questionably disinterested  friendship  and  affection ;  and  let  the  result  be  what  it 
may,  I  shall  retain  a  deep  and  lasting  sense  of  it  as  such  :  but  at  the  same  time  I 
cannot  but  feel  a  painful  apprehension,  that  what  you  mean  for  nothing  but  good 
should  be  the  incidental  occasion  of  real  harm  :  that  is,  the  probable  means  of  dis- 
turbing the  harmony  and  peace  which  at  present  exist  in  my  congregation. 

There  are  some  among  us  whose  inclination  would  prompt  them  to  support  any 
measure  for  the  benefit  of  me  or  my  family,  but  whose  general  circumstances  are, 
like  my  own,  comfortable  and  competent ;  indeed,  just  sufficient  to  fill  up  the  annual 
supply,  with  a  little  besides  to  assist  the  poor  and  needy,  but  who  could  not  ad- 
vance any  thing  like  a  round  sum,  which  would  tell  on  an  occasion  like  this.  Some 
such,  I  am  afraid,  would  be  grieved  to  contribute  nothing ;  and  yet  more  than  a  trifle 
would  be  a  real  inconvenience.  There  are  others  in  superior  circumstances,  and 
by  no  means  backward  to  do  good  in  the  abstract ;  but  who,  from  education,  eco- 
nomical habits,  and  other  causes,  have  never  been  accustomed  to  do  so  on  a  large 
scale ;  and  who,  from  an  apprehension  of  there  being  no  direct  and  immediate 
necessity  in  the  case,  would  be  hurt  and  perhaps  disgusted  at  the  suggestion  that 
a  handsome  sum  was  expected  from  them.  Now,  any  instance  of  this  sort  would 
grate  more  upon  my  mind  than  the  friendship  of  others  would  gratify  it ;  nor  could 
I  prevail  upon  myself  to  receive  a  single  shilling  from  a  reluctant  hand  if  I  knew  it, 
or  as  the  result  of  solicitation  and  admonition  :  and  if  any  thing  of  the  kind  goes 
forward  in  a  way  satisfactory  to  me,  it  must  be  on  a  ground  which  is  hardly  attain- 
able perhaps  in  any  similar  case,  namely,  that  every  subscriber  be,  in  the  fullest 
sense,  a  volunteer ;  for  I  can  most  truly  say,  that  I  had  a  thousand  times  rather 
matters  should  rest  as  they  are,  than  that  the  plan  should  advance  a  single  step  at 
the  risk  of  exciting  sensations  or  producing  effects  similar  to  those  alluded  to  above  : 
and  therefore,  on  this  ground,  if  it  shall  appear  to  you  and  other  friends  prudent  to 
adjourn  the  fiarther  consideration  of  the  business  to  a  future  day,  be  assured  that 
such  a  resolution  will  not  give  me  the  slightest  pain. 

I  have  now  told  you  all  my  heart,  and  shall  leave  the  event  with  Providence  and 
your  discretion, — only  repeating,  that  I  shall  never  cease  to  admire  the  principles 
by  which  you  and  others  have  been  actuated,  and  shall  retain  a  lasting  sense  of 
obligation  for  the  kindness  of  your  intention. 

I  am,  with  best  wishes  and  prayers, 

Yours  most  affectionately, 

THOS.  N.  TOLLER. 
P.S — ^You  are  at  fall  liberty  to  show  this  letter  to  whomsoever  you  think  proper: 
indeed,  with  that  view  I  write  it. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  MEMOIRS 

OF  THE 

REV.  JOSEPH    FREESTON. 

iWrittenin  1821.] 


Of  all  the  species  of  literary  composition,  perhaps  biography  is  the 
most  delightful.  The  attention  concentrated  on  one  individual  gives  a 
unity  to  the  materials  of  which  it  is  composed,  Avhich  is  wanting  in 
general  history.  The  train  of  incidents  through  which  it  conducts  the 
reader  suggests  to  his  imagination  a  multitude  of  analogies  and  com- 
parisons ;  and,  while  he  is  following  the  course  of  events  which  mark 
the  life  of  him  who  is  the  subject  of  the  narrative,  he  is  insensibly  com- 
pelled to  take  a  retrospect  of  his  own.  In  no  other  species  of  writing 
are  we  permitted  to  scrutinize  the  character  so  exactly,  or  to  form 
so  just  and  accurate  an  estimate  of  the  excellences  and  defects,  the 
lights  and  shades,  the  blemishes  and  beauties,  of  an  individual  mind. 

The  progress  of  a  human  being  in  his  passage  through  time  to  eter- 
nity only  requires  to  be  exhibited  with  fidelity  in  order  to  become  an 
interesting  object  to  a  contemplative  mind ;  whatever  may  have  been 
the  moral  or  intellectual  qualities  of  the  individual,  and  however  de- 
graded by  vice,  or  exalted  by  piety  and  virtue.  Conquests  achieved 
or  objects  attained, — conscience  cowering  under  the  tyranny  of  the 
passions,  or  asserting  her  dignity  by  subjecting  them  to  her  sway, — 
are  equally  instructive, — providing  the  reader  is  informed  by  what 
steps  virtuous  or  vicious  habits  were  superinduced,  by  what  stratagems 
temptation  prevailed,  or  by  what  efforts  and  expedients  it  was  repelled. 
The  moral  warfare  which  every  rational  and  accountable  creature  has 
to  sustain,  pregnant  with  consequences  which  reach  to  eternity,  pos- 
sesses an  intrinsic  and  essential  importance,  totally  independent  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  events,  or  the  publicity  and  splendour  of  the  scenes 
to  which  it  is  attached.  The  moral  history  of  a  beggar,  which  faith- 
fully revealed  the  interior  movements  of  his  mind,  and  laid  open  the 
secret  causes  which  contributed  to  form  and  determine  his  character, 
might  enlarge  and  enlighten  the  views  of  a  philosopher.  Whatever 
tends  to  render  our  acquaintance  with  any  portion  of  our  species  more 
2;Ccurate  and  profound  is  an  accession  to  the  most  valuable  part  of  our 
knowledge  ;  and,  though  to  knew  ourselves  h<is  ever  been  deemed  of 


PREFACE  TO  THE  MEMOIRS  OF  REV.  J.  FREESTON.       411 

ihe  most  consequence,  it  may  be  doubtful  whether  the  power  of  self- 
examination  is  ever  exerted  with  so  much  vigour  as  when  it  is  called 
into  action  by  the  exhibition  of  individual  character.  The  improve- 
ment derived  from  narrative  in  this  view  will  be  proportional  to  the 
degree  in  which  the  objects  described  and  the  incidents  related  bear  a 
resemblance  to  those  with  which  the  reader  is  conversant ;  and  for  this 
reason  the  biography  of  private  persons,  though  less  dazzling,  is  more 
instructive  to  the  majority  of  readers  than  that  of  such  as  are  distin- 
guished by  the  elevation  of  their  rank  and  the  splendour  of  their 
achievements.  Few  require  to  be  tauglit  the  arts  by  which  the  favour 
of  princes  is  conciliated,  or  the  machinations  of  rival  candidates  for 
power  defeated ;  few  need  to  be  warned  against  the  errors  and  mis- 
takes which  have  produced  the  loss  of  battles  or  the  failure  of  nego- 
tiations. Events  of  this  order  may  fill  the  imagination,  and  diffuse 
their  dignity  and  pathos  over  the  page  of  history,  but  they  afford  little 
useful  instruction  to  the  bulk  of  mankind.  But  when  a  character 
selected  from  the  ordinary  ranks  of  life  is  faithfully  and  minutely  de- 
lineated, no  effort  is  requisite  to  enable  us  to  place  ourselves  in  the 
same  situation :  we  accompany  the  subject  of  the  narrative  with  an 
interest  undiminished  by  distance,  unimpaired  by  dissimilarity  of  cir- 
cumstances ;  and  from  tiie  efforts  by  which  he  surmounted  difficulties 
and  vanquished  temptations  we  derive  the  most  useful  practical  lessons. 
He  who  desires  to  strengthen  his  virtue  and  purify  his  principles 
will  always  prefer  the  solid  to  the  specious  ;  will  be  more  disposed  to 
contemplate  an  example  of  the  unostentatious  piety  and  goodness  which 
all  men  may  obtain,  than  of  those  extraordinary  achievements  to  which 
few  can  aspire  :  nor  is  it  the  mark  of  a  superior,  but  rather  of  a  vulgar 
and  superficial  taste,  to  consider  nothing  as  great  or  excellent  but  that 
which  glitters  with  titles  or  is  elevated  by  rank. 

The  biography  of  such  as  have  been  eminent  for  piety  has  ever  been 
a  favourite  species  of  reading  with  those  who  possess  a  devotional 
spirit.  "  As  face  answers  to  face  in  a  glass,  so  does  the  heart  of  man 
to  man."  To  trace  the  steps  by  whicli  a  piety  feeble  in  its  rudiments 
has  attained  to  maturity, — to  observe  the  holy  arts  by  which  devout 
habits  were  strengthened  and  temptations  defeated, — to  discern  the 
power  of  truth  in  purifying  and  transforming  the  minds  of  such  as  have 
attained  to  high  degrees  of  sanctity, — is  equally  delightful  and  edifying. 
To  the  real  Christian  experimental  religion  opens  a  new^  world,  replete 
with  objects,  emotions,  and  prospects  of  which  none  but  those  who 
are  taught  of  God  can  form  any  just  or  adequate  conception ;  and  the 
joys  and  sorrows,  the  elevations  and  depressions,  the  dangers  and 
escapes,  incident  to  the  spiritual  warfare,  produce  in  congenial  breasts 
a  lively  sympathy. 

Publications  of  this  nature  have  accordingly  met  for  the  most  part 
with  a  welcome  reception,  and  have  become  one  of  the  most  popular 
and  powerful  instruments  of  piety.  Tlie  religious  public  have  long 
learned  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  Diary  of  Mr.  Williams,  of  Kid- 
derminster, an  industrious  and  opulent  manufacturer,  who  demonstrated 
the  possibility  of  combining  a  prudent  attention  to  commercial  pursuits 


412  PREFACE  TO  THE  MEMOIRS  OF 

with  a  splendid  exhibition  of  the  Christian  graces.  The  masculine 
sense,  the  fervent  piety,  the  active  benevolence  of  that  most  excellent 
man,  will  long  contribute  to  enlighten  and  to  animate  Christians  in  a 
private  rank,  and  to  shed  a  lustre  on  the  religious  profession.  A  more 
perfect  example  perhaps  was  never  exhibited  to  the  imitation  of  active 
tradesmen.  A  devotion  fervent  but  rational,  zeal  tempered  by  the  ex- 
actest  discretion,  and  a  benevolence  invariably  regulated  by  the  dictates 
of  prudence  and  justice, — a  transparent  candour  without  weakness,  and 
a  wisdom  without  art, — combine  to  form  a  living  picture  of  exalted  yet 
attainable  excellence. 

The  Life  and  Diary  of  David  Brainerd,  missionary  to  the  American 
Indians,  exhibits  a  perfect  pattern  of  the  qualities  which  should  distin- 
guish the  instructer  of  rude  and  barbarous  tribes ;  the  most  invincible 
patience  and  self-denial,  the  profoundest  humility,  exquisite  prudence, 
indefatigable  industry,  and  such  a  devotedness  to  God,  or  rather,  such 
an  absorption  of  the  whole  soul  in  zeal  for  the  Divine  glory  and  the 
salvation  of  men,  as  is  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  since  the  age  of  the 
apostles.  Such  was  the  intense  ardour  of  his  mind,  that  it  seems  to 
have  diffused  the  spirit  of  a  martyr  over  the  most  common  incidents 
of  his  life.  His  constitutional  melancholy,  though  it  must  be  regarded 
as  a  physical  imperfection,  imparts  an  additional  interest  and  pathos 
to  the  narrative ;  since  we  more  easily  sympathize  with  the  emotions 
of  sorrow  than  of  joy.  There  is  a  monotony  in  his  feelings,  it  must  be 
acknowledged,  and  consequently  a  frequent  repetition  of  the  same  ideas, 
which  will  disgust  a  fastidious  or  superficial  reader ;  but  it  is  the  mo- 
notony of  sublimity. 

The  Life  of  Fletcher,  of  Madeley,  affords  in  some  respects  a  parallel, 
in  others  a  contrast,  to  that  of  Brainerd :  and  it  is  curious  to  observe 
how  the  influence  of  natural  temperament  varies  the  exhibition  of  the 
same  principles.  With  a  considerable  difference  in  their  religious 
views,  the  same  zeal,  the  same  spirituality  of  mind,  the  same  contempt 
of  the  world,  is  conspicuous  in  the  character  of  each.  But  the  lively 
imagination,  the  sanguine  complexion  of  Fletcher  permits  him  to 
triumph  and  exult  in  the  consolatory  truths  and  prospects  of  religion. 
He  is  a  seraph  who  burns  with  the  ardours  of  divine  love  ;  and  spurn- 
ing the  fetters  of  mortality,  he  almost  habitually  seems  to  have  antici- 
pated the  rapture  of  the  beatific  vision.  Brainerd,  oppressed  with  a 
constitutional  melancholy,  is  chiefly  occupied  with  the  thoughts  of  his 
pollutions  and  defects  in  the  eyes  of  Infinite  Purity.  His  is  a  mourning 
and  conflicting  piety,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  self-abasement,  breathing 
itself  forth  in  "  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered  ;"  always  dissatis- 
fied with  itself,  always  toiling  in  pursuit  of  a  purity  and  perfection  un- 
attainable by  mortals.  The  mind  of  Fletcher  was  habitually  bright- 
ened with  gratitude  and  joy  for  what  he  had  attained ;  Brainerd  was 
actuated  with  a  restless  solicitude  for  further  acquisitions.  If  Fletcher 
soared  to  all  the  heights,  it  may  be  affirmed  with  equal  truth  that 
Brainerd  sounded  all  the  depths  of  Christian  piety  ;  and  while  the  former 
was  regaling  himself  with  fruit  from  the  tree  of  life,  the  latter,  on  the 
waves  of  an  impetuous  sea,  was  "  doing  business  in  the  mighty  waters." 


THE  REV.  JOSEPH  FREESTON.  413 

Both  equally  delighted  and  accustomed  to  lose  themsc  Ves  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  Deity,  they  seemed  to  have  surveyed  that  Infinite 
Object  under  difterent  aspects  ;  and  while  Fletcher  was  absorbed  in 
the  contemplation  of  infinite  benignity  and  love,  Brainerd  shrunk  into 
nothing  in  the  presence  of  immaculate  purity  and  holiness. 

The  different  situations  in  which  they  were  placed  had  probably 
considerable  effect  in  producing  or  heightening  their  respective  pecu- 
liarities. Fletcher  exercised  his  ministry  in  the  calm  of  domestic  life, 
surrounded  with  the  beauties  of  nature  ;  Brainerd  pursued  his  mission 
in  a  remote  and  howling  wilderness,  where,  in  the  midst  of  uncultivated 
savages,  he  was  exposed  to  intolerable  hardships  and  fatigues. 

The  religious  public  have  lately  been  favoured  with  a  rich  accession 
to  the  recorded  monuments  of  exalted  piety,  in  the  Life  and  Religious 
Experience  of  the  lamented  Henry  Martyn.  It  is  delightful  to  behold,- 
in  the  history  of  that  extraordinary  man,  talents  which  attracted  the 
admiration  of  one  of  the  most  celebrated  seats  of  learning  consecrated 
to  the  honour  of  the  Cross  ;  an  enterprising  genius,  in  the  ardour  of 
youth,  relinquishing  the  pursuit  of  science  and  of  fame,  in  order  to 
travel  in  the  steps  of  a  Brainerd  and  a  Schwartz.  Crowned  with  the 
liighest  honours  a  university  could  bestow,  we  see  him  quit  the  luxu- 
rious shades  of  academic  bowers,  for  a  tempestuous  ocean  and  a 
burning  clime, — for  a  life  of  peril  and  fatigue,  from  which  he  could 
expect  no  other  reward  than  the  heroic  pleasure  of  communicating  to 
perishing  millions  the  word  of  eternal  life.  He  appears  to  have  formed 
his  religious  character  chiefly  on  the  model  of  Brainerd :  and  as  he 
equalled  him  in  his  patience,  fortitude,  humility,  and  love,  so  he  strictly 
resembled  him  in  his  end.  Both  nearly  at  the  same  age  fell  victims 
to  a  series  of  intolerable  privations  and  fatigues,  voluntarily  incurred 
in  the  course  of  their  exertions  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  of  Jesus. 
And  though  their  death  was  not  a  violent  one,  the  sacrifices  they  made 
and  the  sufferings  they  endured  entitle  them  to  the  honours  and  rewards 
of  a  protracted  martyrdom.  Their  memory  will  be  cherished  by  the 
veneration  of  all  succeeding  ages ;  and  he  who  reads  their  lives  will 
be  ready  to  exclaim,  "  Here  is  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  saints." 

If  the  biography  of  men  such  as  these  fails  to  produce  all  the  benefit 
we  might  expect,  some  will  be  ready  to  impute  it  to  that  hopeless 
superiority  of  character  which  seems  to  place  them  almost  above  the 
reach  of  imitation.  The  justice  of  the  inference,  however,  may  be 
fairly  questioned,  since  he  who  proposes  for  his  imitation  a  model  ap- 
proaching to  perfection,  though  he  may  not  equal,  will,  probably,  in  the 
fervour  of  his  exertions  to  copy  h,  take  a  higher  flight  than  if  he  had 
contented  himself  with  the  contemplation  of  an  inferior  standard.  He 
who  forms  his  taste  on  the  inimitable  productions  of  a  Raphael  will 
reach  nearer  to  perfection  than  he  could  arrive  by  the  study  of  an  infe- 
rior artist :  and,  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  man  to  the  image  of  his 
Maker,  the  wisdom  of  God  has  thought  fit  to  exhibit  a  faultless  model 
in  the  character  of  the  incaniate  Redeemer. 

Before  I  dismiss  the  reader  to  the  perusal  of  the  following  narrative, 
it  may  not  be  improper  to  apiprize  him  of  what  he  is  to  expect.     If  he 


4H  PREFACE  TO  THE  MEMOIRS  OP 

hopes  to  be  amused  by  the  recital  of  striking  occurrences  and  eventful 
passages,  he  will  find  himself  disappointed.  The  following  is  not  the 
history  of  a  man  bustling  on  the  busy  stage  of  life,  and  exposed  to 
great  vicissitudes  of  good  or  evil  fortune  :  it  is  the  simple  unpretending 
narrative  of  a  dissenting  minister,  who  passed  his  days  in  the  retire- 
ment of  the  country,  in  tranquil  meditation,  in  the  exercise  of  unosten- 
tatious piety,  and  an  assiduous  attention  to  the  spiritual  improvement 
of  his  flock.  Though  he  did  not  enjoy  the  benefit  of  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, my  revered  friend  was  possessed  of  an  active  mquisitive  mind, 
which  prompted  him  to  devote  much  of  his  time  to  reading,  and  en- 
abled him  to  acquire  a  large  fund  of  general,  but  especially  of  theo- 
logical knowledge.  Few  men,  in  similar  circumstances,  have  availed 
themselves  to  an  equal  extent  of  the  information  which  the  best  books 
in  our  language,  on  moral  and  religious  subjects,  supply.  Reading 
with  him  was  not  mei-ely  a  habit,  but  a  passion.  His  curiosity  was 
not  limited  within  the  circle  of  his  profession  :  he  was  delighted  with 
works  on  general  literature,  and  purchased  and  perused  some  of  the 
valuable  elementary  treatises  on  science.  But  as  devotion  was  his 
peculiar  element,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  theology  in  its 
various  branches  was  his  favourite  study.  Though  he  was  far  from 
neglecting  the  antiquities  and  the  criticism  of  theology,  as  far  as  they 
are  accessible  to  a  mere  English  scholar,  he  placed  his  principal 
delight  in  the  perusal  of  works  immediately  devoted  to  the  inculcation 
of  doctrinal  and  experimental  religion :  and  in  this  pursuit  his  attention 
was  forcibly  drawn  to  the  writings  of  the  puritan  divines,  who,  with 
all  their  imperfections  of  style  and  method,  are  unquestionably  the 
safest  of  all  uninspired  guides.  The  masculine  sense,  the  profound 
learning,  the  rich  and  unequalled  unction  of  these  fathers  of  the  modem 
church,  exerted  a  powerful  influence  on  liis  mind,  and  greatly  contrib- 
uted to  form  and  mature  his  character. 

Of  the  great  Mr.  Howe,  who  shines  in  the  firmament  with  a  pre- 
eminent and  unrivalled  lustre,  he  always  spoke  in  terms  of  just  admi- 
ration, assigning  him  that  preference  among  the  nonconformist  divines 
which  it  is  surprising  any  one  should  dispute.  The  reader  of  the 
succeeding  narrative  will  perceive,  that  for  many  years  it  was  his 
constant  practice  to  devote  a  considerable  portion  of  each  day  to  the 
perusal  of  the  best  practical  writers ;  to  which,  imder  God,  he  was 
undoubtedly  indebted  for  that  habitual  spirituality  of  mind  which  so 
remarkably  distinguished  him,  and  in  which  very  few  whom  I  have 
had  the  happiness  of  knowing  appeared  to  equal,  none  to  surpass  him. 
His  sense  of  the  Divine  presence,  his  relish  for  devout  meditation  and 
intercourse,  his  advertence  to  the  great  realities  of  a  future  life,  seemed 
scarcely  ever  to  forsake  him ;  and  the  least  that  can  be  affirmed  is, 
that  "  he  walked  with  God." 

Though  he  exercised  his  ministry,  through  the  whole  of  his  life, 
among  the  General  Baptists,  his  sentiments  approached  nearer  to 
those  of  Mr.  Baxter  than  to  the  system  of  Arminius,  nor  would  his 
statements  of  Christian  doctrine  have  given  the  slightest  offence 
to  a  congregation  of  moderate  Calvinists.     But  to  polemical  theology 


THE  REV.  JOSEPH  FREESTON,  4 15 

he  was  not  attached ;  his  rehgion  was  entirely  of  a  practical  and  ex- 
perimental character :  nor  did  he  attach  the  smallest  importance  to 
correct  views  of  Christian  doctrine,  any  further  than  as  they  tended 
to  influence  the  heart.  To  Socinianism,  in  all  its  modifications,  he 
entertained  a  most  hearty  and  decided  aversion,  and  few  circumstances 
gave  him  more  poignant  uneasiness  than  to  see  some  of  the  most 
conspicuous  members  of  his  church  embrace  and  patronise  that  de- 
structive heresy.  In  the  latter  years  of  his  life  he  devoted  a  consider- 
able portion  of  his  time  to  composition  ;  and  his  tract  on  Socinianism, 
his  Directions  and  Encouragements  for  Travellers  to  Sion,  his  Advice 
to  a  young  Minister,  with  other  publications  of  a  similar  tendency, — 
the  result  of  long  experience,  of  much  well-digested  reading,  and  of 
patient  thought, — will  perpetuate  and  enrol  his  name  among  the  most 
useful  practical  writers  of  the  present  day.  Fond  as  he  was  of  retire- 
ment, he  retained  a  keen  relish  for  the  pleasures  of  society,  for  which 
he  was  eminently  fitted  by  the  gentleness  of  his  manners,  the  amenity 
of  his  temper,  and  the  variety  of  his  knowledge.  His  conversation 
expressed  and  inspired  serenity  and  cheerfulness  rather  than  mirth ; 
and  he  possessed,  to  a  very  extraordinary  degree,  the  happy  art  of 
mingling  a  seasoning  of  piety  with  his  hours  of  the  greatest  relaxation. 
The  natural  temperament  of  my  revered  friend  inclined  in  some  degree, 
I  have  been  informed,  to  the  irascible ;  but  who  ever  beheld  him  be- 
trayed for  a  moment  into  language  or  deportment  incompatible  with 
the  meekness  of  the  gospel  ?  His  exquisite  sensibility  is  abundantly 
conspicuous  in  the  following  narrative,  nor  could  it  escape  the  obser- 
vation of  any  person  who  enjoyed  much  of  his  intimacy ;  but  it  was 
so  directed  and  refined,  by  a  higher  principle,  as  to  become  one  of  the 
most  attractive  qualities  in  his  character. 

The  extreme  depression  of  the  manufacture  in  the  place  of  his  resi- 
dence was  a  source  of  much  uneasiness,  both  by  the  intense  sympathy 
he  felt  for  the  sufferers,  and  the  degree  in  which  it  affected  his 
personal  resources.  It  is  painful  to  reflect,  that  a  man  "  of  whom  the 
world  was  not  worthy,"  perhaps  never  received  from  his  people  more 
than  a  moiety  of  the  means  of  his  subsistence  ;  and  that,  after  sinking 
the  greater  part  of  his  scanty  property,  he  must  often  have  been  involved 
in  irretrievable  difficulties,  but  for  the  casual  liberality  of  friends 
whom  his  superior  merit  had  attached.  That,  in  a  situation  so  full  of 
embarrassment  and  perplexity,  he  retained  a  curiosity  so  eager,  a 
passion  for  study  and  inquiry  so  unabated,  as  to  induce  him  to  spend 
a  large  sum  of  money  in  the  purchase  of  books,  is  a  decisive  proof  of 
his  possessing  a  mind  of  no  ordinary  vigour.  But  I  check  myself. 
It  was  not  my  intention  to  write  an  encomium  on  the  excellent  person 
who  is  the  subject  of  the  following  Memoir,  but  merely  to  introduce  it 
to  the  reader's  attention  by  a  few  prefatory  remarks ;  and  having 
already  trespassed  too  long  on  his  patience,  I  must  be  permitted  to 
close,  by  expressing  my  earnest  prayer  that  the  effect  of  its  perusal 
on  as  many  as  read  it  may  be  to  assimilate  their  minds,  in  some  degree 
at  least,  to  the  character  of  its  excellent  and  lamented  author. 


EXTRACT 


FROM  MR.  HALL'S  ROUGH  NOTES 


FUNERAL  SERMON  FOR  DR.  RYLAND. 


Early  in  life  he  formed  an  intimacy  with  a  set  of  writers  who, 
however  they  may  push  some  theoretical  views  to  excess,  are  eminent 
for  their  elevated  ideas  of  the  moral  character  of  the  Deity,  and  for 
the  zeal  with  which  they  contend  for  its  influence  on  doctrinal  and 
practical  religion.  Firm  champions  of  disinterested  love,  they  set 
themselves,  with  the  greatest  ardour,  to  expose  those  religious  affec- 
tions which  are  founded  on  mere  selfishness,  and  which  are  excited 
merely  by  the  conviction  their  possessors  entertain  of  their  having 
been  the  object  of  the  Divine  predilection,  without  any  perception  of 
the  excellence  and  moral  beauty  of  the  Divine  nature.  They  laid  as 
the  foundation  of  all  vital  religion  a  perception  of  moral  beauty,  a 
complacency  in  the  Deity  on  account  of  his  own  intrinsic  excellence, 
which,  they  contend,  is  a  separate  principle  from  mere  gratitude  for 
benefits  expected  or  received,  however  it  may  enlarge  and  extend  it. 
The  originality  displayed  by  these  writers,  at  the  head  of  whom  the 
celebrated  Edwards  is  placed  by  universal  consent, — the  acumen  of 
their  logic,  and  the  fervour  of  their  piety, — seized  powerfully  on  the 
mind  of  Dr.  Ryland  in  his  early  years,  and  gave  a  decisive  turn  to  his 
subsequent  studies  and  pursuits.  From  that  time  to  the  close  of  his 
life,  the  relation  which  Christianity  bears  to  the  display  of  the  Divine 
character  was  ever  present  to  his  thoughts :  he  delighted  in  whatever 
tended  to  deepen  and  enlarge  his  conceptions  of  that  ineffable  original ; 
he  delighted  especially  to  contemplate  him  under  the  character  in 
which  John  presents  him,  when  he  affirms  that  "  God  is  love," — as  a 
being  possessing  an  infinite  propensity  to  impart  his  "  fulness,"  by 
diffusing  the  greatest  possible  sum  of  happiness  throughout  his  vast 
dominions.  These  lofty  musings  were,  with  him,  not  the  object  of 
speculation  only,  or  the  discriminating  features  of  a  creed.  He  formed 
the  interior  of  his  character  upon  them ;  they  were  his  mental  aliment, 


ON  THE  DISINTERESTED  LOVE  OF  GOD.  417 

and  intimately  incorporated  with  his  thoughts.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted 
that,  in  a  mind  so  prepared  by  divine  grace  as  was  his,  they  exercised 
a  most  [beneficial]  influence,  and  produced  a  luxuriant  crop  of  Chris- 
tian virtues.  He  appeared  to  be  penetrated  with  a  perpetual  sense  of 
the  Divine  presence ;  not  as  a  source  of  terror  or  dismay,  but  of  hab- 
itual peace,  confidence,  and  joy.  "  He  endured  as  seeing  him  that  is 
invisible."  His  love  to  the  Great  Supreme  was  equally  exempt  from 
slavish  timidity  and  presumptuous  familiarity.  It  was  an  awful  love, 
such  as,  in  a  very  inferior  degree,  the  beatific  vision  must  be  supposed 
to  inspire,  trembling  with  ecstasy,  while  prostrate  with  awe. 


[Compare  the  above  with  pp.  220,  and  215,  Vol.  I.] 
Vol.  II.— D  d 


AN  ADDRESS, 


CIRCULATED  AT  THE  FORMATION  OF    THE   LEICESTER  AUXILIARY  mSLE 
SOCIETY,  FEBRUARY    19,   1810. 


We  feel  peculiar  satisfaction  in  announcing  to  the  public  the 
formation  of  an  Auxiliary  Bible  Society  at  Leicester,  the  object  of 
which  is,  to  co-operate  with  the  parent  society  in  London  in  giving 
as  extensive  a  circulation  as  possible  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Not- 
withstanding the  diversity  of  sentiment  which  unhappily  prevails  among 
Christians,  we  may  fairly  presume  on  the  concurrence  of  all  parties 
and  denominations  in  promoting  a  design  so  disinterested  as  that  of 
diffusing  the  light  of  revelation.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  design  our 
party  is  the  world ;  the  only  distinction  we  contemplate  is  between 
the  disciples  of  revelation  and  the  unhappy  victims  of  superstition  and 
idolatry  ;  and  as  we  propose  to  circulate  the  Bible  without  notes  or 
comments,  truth  only  can  be  a  gainer  by  the  measure.  To  those  who 
confine  their  views  to  this  country,  the  want  of  Bibles  may  not  appear 
very  urgent ;  but,  without  insisting  on  the  many  thousands  even  here 
who  are  destitute  of  them,  it  is  certain  that  in  pagan,  Mahometan,  and 
popish  countries  they  are  extremely  rare,  and  their  number  totally 
inadequate,  not  merely  to  supply  the  immense  population  in  those  parts, 
but  even  the  increasing  demand  which  a  variety  of  circumstances  have 
combined  to  produce.  To  supply  this  demand,  to  whatever  extent  it 
may  be  carried,  is  the  aim  of  the  society  in  London  with  which  this  is 
designed  to  co-operate.  Their  ambition,  as  far  as  it  may  please  God 
to  smile  upon  tlieir  efforts,  is,  by  imparting  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to 
open  the  fountain  of  revelation  to  all  nations.  It  was  natural  and 
necessary  for  the  first  movement  in  so  great  an  enterprise  to  commence 
at  the  heart  of  the  empire ;  nor  is  it  less  so,  that,  having  commenced 
there,  it  should  propagate  itself  through  the  larger  vessels  and  arteries 
to  the  remotest  extremities  of  the  body.  We  have  the  pleasure  of 
perceiving  that  the  example  of  the  metropolis  has  already  been  followed 
in  several  of  our  principal  towns  and  cities  ;  and  there  is  room  to  hope 
that  similar  institutions  will,  ere  long,  be  formed  in  every  part  of  the 
kingdom.  Nor  has  the  emulation  excited  been  confined  to  this  nation 
and  its  dependencies ;  societies  of  the  same  description  have  been 
formed  at  Philadelphia,  at  Berlin,  and  at  Basle,  each  of  which  derives 
support  and    assistance    from   the   original    one    established   in   the 


ADDRESS,  ETC.  4,10 

metropolis  of  Great  Britain.  While  so  general  an  alacrity  has  been 
evinced  on  this  occasion,  it  had  ill  become  the  character  of  the  town 
of  Leicester  to  stand  neuter,  highly  distinguished  as  it  is  for  its  great 
and  ancient  respectability,  as  well  as  for  the  extent  of  its  establishments, 
and  exertions  in  the  cause  of  religion  and  charity.  We  have  the 
pleasure  of  reflecting  that  the  meeting  so  obligingly  called  by  the 
mayor  was  numerously  and  respectably  attended,  that  the  utmost  har- 
mony prevailed  in  its  proceedings,  and  that  there  appeared  throughout 
an  utter  oblivion  of  party  distinctions,  with  an  emulation  in  each 
individual  to  promote  to  the  utmost  the  purposes  for  which  we  were 
convened. 

In  whatever  light  we  consider  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
it  appears  to  us  replete  with  utility.  Its  formation  will,  we  trust, 
constitute  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  religion,  which  may  be  styled 
the  era  of  unanimity.  It  afl'ords  a  rallying  point  for  the  piety  of  the 
age,  an  unsuspicious  medium  of  communication  between  the  good  of 
all  parties  and  nations,  a  centre  of  union  and  co-operation  in  the 
advancement  of  a  common  cause,  which  cannot  fail  to  allay  the  heats 
and  smooth  the  asperities  of  discordant  sentiment.  By  giving  the  most 
effectual  aid  to  means  already  set  on  foot  for  the  conversion  of  pagan 
nations,  it  also  promises  to  accelerate  the  period  when  truth  shall 
become,  victorious  in  the  earth.  When  the  pure  light  of  revelation 
once  shines  amid  the  darkness  of  polytheism,  we  may  venture  to  hope 
that  the  latter  will  be  gradually  expelled,  that  the  contrast  of  truth  and 
error,  of  sacred  mysteries  and  preposterous  fictions,  they  respectively 
display,  will  be  deeply  and  extensively  felt.  What  the  Bible  Society 
proposes,  let  it  be  remembered,  is  not  to  circulate  such  a  number  of 
copies  of  the  New  Testament  in  foreign  parts  as  shall  merely  suffice 
to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the  learned,  to  adorn  a  museum,  or  to  enrich 
a  library  ;  but  to  lay  them  open,  if  possible,  to  all  classes  of  society  in 
every  nation.  What  incalculable  benefits  may  be  expected  to  result 
from  the  completion  of  such  a  plan !  Wherever  the  Scriptures  are 
generally  read,  the  standard  of  morals  is  raised,  the  public  mind  is 
expanded,  a  spirit  of  inquiry  excited,  and  the  sphere  of  intellectual 
vision  inconceivably  enlarged.  While  they  contribute  most  essentially 
to  the  improvement  of  reason,  by  presenting  to  its  contemplation  the 
noblest  objects,  they  aid  its  weakness  and  supply  its  deficiencies  by 
information  beyond  its  reach.  If  "  to  know  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  he  has  sent,"  be,  as  our  Saviour  assures  us, 
"  eternal  life,"  to  adopt  effectual  measures  for  imparting  that  knowledge 
must  be  allowed  to  be  the  most  genuine  exercise  of  benevolence.  It 
is  to  be  lamented  that  Protestant  nations  have  been  too  long  inattentive 
to  this  object:  we  rejoice  to  find  that  they  are  now  convinced  of  their 
error;  and  that,  touched  with  commiseration  for  the  unhappy  condition 
of  mankind,  they  are  anxious  to  impart  those  riches  which  may  be 
shared  without  being  diminished,  and  communicated  without  being  lost 
to  the  possessor.  Such  is  the  felicity  of  religion, — such  the  unbounded 
liberality  of  its  principles.  Tiiougb  we  sliould  be  sorry  to  administer 
fuel  to  national  vanity,  we  cannot  conceal  the  satisfaction  it  gives  us 

Dd2 


420  ADDRESS,  ETC. 

to  reflect,  that  while  the  fairest  portion  of  the  globe  has  fallen  a  prey 
to  that  guilty  and  restless  ambition  which,  by  the  inscrutable  wisdom 
of  Providence,  is  permitted  for  a  time  to  take  peace  from  the  earth, 
this  favoured  country  is  employed  in  spreading  the  triumphs  of  truth, 
multiplying  the  means  of  instruction,  and  opening  sources  of  consola- 
tion to  an  afllicted  world.  In  these  eventful  times,  so  pregnant  with 
difficulty  and  danger,  we  consider  this  as  affording  a  most  favourable 
omen  of  the  ultimate  intentions  of  Providence  respecting  this  nation. 

Having  briefly  explained  our  object  and  motives,  we  beg  leave  to 
recommend  the  Leicester  Auxiliary  Bible  Society  to  the  patronage  of 
an  enlightened  public,  not  doubting  they  will  feel  the  propriety  of  lend- 
ing their  support  to  an  institution  which,  besides  the  circulation  of  the 
Scriptures  abroad,  promises  to  provide  for  our  domestic  wants,  by 
enabling  the  poorest  person  to  possess  himself  of  that  invaluable 
treasure. 


A   SPEECH, 


DELTVEREO  AT  THE  SECOND  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING   OF  THE   LEICESTER 
AUXILIARY   BIBLE    SOCIETY,  APRIL    13,   1812. 


Permit  me  to  say  that  I  heartily  concur  in  the  sentiments  so  forcibly 
expressed  by  the  respectable  speakers  who  have  preceded  me.  The 
more  I  reflect  upon  the  constitution,  operation,  and  genius  of  the  Bible 
Society,  the  more  is  my  conviction  confirmed  of  its  excellence  and 
utility.  It  is  matter  of  surprise  to  me,  that  an  institution  so  admirable, 
and  so  beneficial,  should  meet  with  the  least  opposition  from  the  pro- 
fessors of  our  common  Christianity,  when  the  propriety  of  making  the 
Scriptures  as  extensively  known  as  possible  might  be  supposed  to  pass 
among  Protestants  for  an  incontrovertible  maxim.  To  imagine  such 
a  measure  can  be  carried  into  efl'ect  without  being  productive  of  much 
good,  and  still  more  to  augur  mischievous  consequences  as  the  probable 
result,  approaches  so  near  to  an  impeachment  of  the  perfection  and 
sufficiency  of  the  divine  oracles,  that  to  my  poor  judgment  it  appears 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  distinguish  them.  For  my  part,  I  am  at 
an  utter  loss  to  conceive  of  a  revelation  from  heaven  that  must  not  be 
trusted  alone ;  of  a  rule  of  life  and  manners  which  in  the  same  breath 
is  declared  to  be  perfect,  and  yet  so  obscure  and  incompetent  that  its 
tendency  to  mislead  shall  be  greater  than  its  tendency  to  conduct  in 
the  right  path ;  of  a  fountain  of  truth  (and  the  only  original  fountain, 
as  our  opponents  themselves  allow)  more  calculated,  when  left  to  its 
silent  operation,  to  send  forth  bitter  waters  than  sweet.  If  these  must 
appear  to  a  candid  and  impartial  mind  untenable  and  contradictory 
propositions,  then  must  the  chief  objections  of  our  opponents  fall  to  the 
ground,  and  their  prognostics  of  danger,  from  the  operations  of  the 
Bible  Society,  be  pronounced  chimerical  and  unfounded.  Whoever 
weighs  the  arguments  of  our  opponents  must  be  convinced  that  they 
all  turn  upon  the  following  supposition — that  the  Scriptures  are  so 
ambiguous  and  obscure,  that  when  left  to  themselves  they  are  more 
likely  to  generate  error  than  truth,  to  foment  division  than  to  produce 
unanimity  and  agreement.  If  this  implies  no  reflection  on  the  excel- 
lence of  the  Bible,  and  the  wisdom  of  its  Divine  Author,  what,  I  will 
ask,  can  imply  such  a  reflection  ?  And  if  this  be  not  admitted,  how  is 
it  possible  for  a  moment  to  entertain  a  scruple  respecting  the  propriety 
of  giving  them  the  most  extensive  circulation  ? 


422  SPEECH  AT  AN  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING  OF 

To  dread  the  indiscriminate  perusal  of  the  Scriptures,  and,  under 
pretence  of  tender  consideration  for  the  weakness  of  the  common  peo- 
ple, prohibit  their  circulation,  has  always  been  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  detestable  features  of  popery.  From  the  very  dawn  of  the 
Reformation  it  has  been  stigmatized  by  Protestants  of  every  description, 
as  constituting  a  principal  branch  of  the  mystery  of  iniquity.  But 
wherein  does  the  maxim  of  our  opponents  differ  from  that  of  the  papists 
on  this  subject  ?  If  any  difference  can  be  perceived,  it  is  certainly  not 
in  the  nature  but  in  the  extension  of  the  principle.  The  papists  con- 
tend that  the  common  people  are  not  to  be  intrusted  with  the  Bible  at 
all ;  while  our  opponents  assert  that  they  are  not  to  be  trusted  with  it 
alone.  The  former  instruct  their  votaries  to  shut  their  ears  against 
the  voice  of  God  altogether ;  the  latter  insist  that  it  is  dangerous  to 
hear  it  except  in  immediate  conjunction  with  their  own  interpretation. 
Surely  this  must  be  considered  as  strange  language  in  a  Protestant 
country,  and  most  offensive  to  Protestant  ears. 

What  is  the  reason  that  the  Scriptures  may  not  be  trusted  alone  ? 
"  Why,"  say  our  opponents,  "  they  are  liable  to  be  misinterpreted,  and 
wrested  to  countenance  the  respective  opinions  and  practices  of  different 
sects  and  parties."  Be  it  so  :  we  admit  tliis  to  be  possible  ;  but  what 
remedy  can  be  devised  to  obviate  this  evil  1  Is  their  use  to  be  entirely 
proscribed  ?  "  No,"  say  our  opponents,  "  but  they  must  be  invariably 
accompanied  by  another  book,  which  may  be  considered  in  the  light 
of  an  authorized  commentary."  But  we  would  ask  again,  are  we  to 
judge  of  this  commentary ;  or  are  we  to  receive  it  simply  on  the  ground 
of  authority,  and  upon  the  principle  of  implicit  faith  ;  or  is  any  exercise 
of  private  judgment  permitted  to  us  ?  If  it  be  replied  that  it  is  not, 
this  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  open  and  barefaced  popery.  If  the 
judgment  is  to  be  exerted  at  all,  and  every  thing  is  not  to  be  taken 
upon  trust,  their  commentary  must  be  judged  of  by  some  criterion,  and 
what  can  that  be  but  the  Scriptures  ?  The  Scriptures  must  then,  after 
all,  be  appealed  to,  before  it  is  possible  to  determine  on  the  correctness 
of  the  commentary ;  and  thus  we  are  led  back  to  the  precise  point 
from  which  we  set  out,  that  is,  the  examination  of  the  Scriptures. 
According  to  the  views  of  our  opponents,  we  are  either  to  admit  the 
principle  of  iinplicit  faitli  to  its  utmost  extent,  which  is  open  and  avowed 
popery  ;  or  we  are  first  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  by  the  commentary, 
and  then  judge  of  the  commentary  by  the  Scriptures.  This  is  the 
circle  out  of  which  it  is  impossible  for  our  opponents  to  escapee,  and 
they  may  be  lashed  round  it  to  all  eternity  !  Let  it  once  be  admitted 
that  the  sacred  volume  is  the  only  standard  of  truth,  and  the  only 
infallible  directory  in  practice,  and  it  will  necessarily  follow  that  all 
other  modes  of  instruction  must  be  tried  by  it ;  and  consequently,  that 
every  idea  of  giving  it  a  corrective,  or  a  companion,  call  it  which  you 
please,  must  be  futile  and  absurd.  I  am  persuaded  I  am  speaking  the 
sentiments,  on  this  occasion,  of  every  individual  present  at  this 
meeting,  and  not  abetting  the  views  of  any  particulaa"  party.  I  trust 
none  in  the  present  assembly  will  do  me  the  injustice  of  supposing  that 
any  reflection  is  intended  upon  the  liturgy  :  though  a  Protestant  dis- 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  423 

senter,  I  am  by  no  means  insensible  to  its  merits.  I  believe  that  the 
evangelical  purity  of  its  sentiments,  the  chastised  fervour  of  its  devotion, 
and  the  niajestic  simplicity  of  its  language,  liave  combined  to  place  it 
in  the  very  first  rank  of  uninspired  compositions.  The  maxim  we 
wish  to  establish,  as  amply  sufficient  to  overrule  the  objections  of  our 
opponents,  is  simply  that  which  in  the  hands  of  the  immortal  Chilling- 
worth  was  fouud  capable  of  demolishing  the  whole  fabric  of  popery. 
"  The  Bible,"  said  he,  "  the  Bible  alone,  is  the  religion  of  Protestants." 
The  conduct  of  those  who  have  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
opposition  to  the  Bible  Society  is  also  inconsistent  in  another  point. 
While  they  deprecate  the  operations  of  the  Bible  Society  in  circulating 
the  Bible  alone  in  this  country,  they  applaud  this  very  identical 
measure  in  its  application  to  foreign  parts.  This  appears  to  me  a 
very  extraordinary  conduct.  Their  proceeding  can  only  be  justified 
on  the  admission,  that  notwithstanding  the  possible  perversion  of  the 
Scripture  to  ill  purposes,  it  is  calculated,  when  left  to  itself,  to  do  good 
on  the  whole.  In  this  instance,  it  is  conceded  that  its  use  more  than 
counterbalances  the  possible  inconveniences  arising  from  its  abuse ; 
a  clear  surplus  of  good  is  contemplated  as  the  probable  result,  for, 
without  such  an  expectation,  how  can  the  measure  in  question  be 
entitled  to  commendation  for  a  moment?  I  would  ask,  then,  what 
principle  of  reasoning  is  that  which  will  justify  an  opposition  to  the 
scheme  of  action  which,  it  is  admitted,  is  likely  on  the  whole  to  do 
good,  although  it  may  possibly  be  accompanied  with  a  portion  of  evil 
allowedly  inferior.  Are  not  all  the  calculations  of  prudence  founded 
on  a  comparison  of  advantages  and  disadvantages  ?  Have  not  all  the 
plans  of  benevolence  which  have  ever  been  devised  proceeded  on  a 
necessary  compromise  with  contingent  evils,  where,  if  it  can  be 
demonstrated  that  these  bear  no  proportion  to  the  good  likely  to  result, 
every  requisition  is  satisfied,  and  every  reasonable  suffrage  secured  ? 
Are  we  to  sit  still,  and  attempt  nothing  for  the  improvement  of  our 
species,  until  we  are  mathematically  certain  that  nothing  can  possibly 
spring  from  our  efforts  but  pure,  unmingled,  defecated  good ;  and  this 
in  a  world  abounding  with  imperfections  of  all  sorts,  where  evil  is  so 
widely  diffused  as  to  insinuate  itself  into  every  mode  of  action,  and 
every  element  of  enjoyment  1  If  this  is  not  pretended,  why  should  it 
be  deemed  necessary  for  the  operations  of  the  Bible  Society  to  furnish 
an  exception ;  or  that  it  should  be  perfectly  free  from  that  portion  of 
inconvenience  and  evil  which  cleaves  to  all  the  works  of  men  ?  When 
our  enemies  object  to  the  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  alone  in  this 
country,  and  at  the  same  time  applaud  the  same  measures  with  respect 
to  foreign  parts,  they  surely  forget  that  the  same  objections  apply, 
and  with  equal  force,  to  the  latter  as  to  the  former  proceeding.  The 
obscurity  of  which  they  complain,  which  exposes  them  to  the  danger 
of  being  misinterpreted,  their  liability  to  be  wrested  to  countenance 
error,  heresy,  and  schism,  are  properties  which,  I  presume,  we  shall 
not  be  very  ready  to  ascribe  to  them.  But,  admitting  them  to  possess 
these  qualities,  will  they  lose  them  by  being  conveyed  to  distant 
•countries  ?     Is  their  tendency  to  be  pjonoiuiced  pernicious  or  salutary 


424  SPEECH  AT  AN  ANNIVERSARY    MEETING  OF 

according  to  the  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude  1  Are  there  not  a 
variety  of  sects  and  parties  on  the  Continent,  as  well  as  in  Great 
Britain,  to  whose  views  the  perversion  of  them  may  be  rendered 
subservient?  Is  the  information  they  afford  in  this  country  doubtful 
and  obscure,  and  does  it  become  at  once  clear  and  decisive  when  it 
is  communicated  in  foreign  parts  ?  As  our  opponents  seem  to  suppose 
they  possess  a  valetudinarian  habit,  and  require  a  very  delicate  manage- 
ment in  this  country,  perhaps  they  imagine  their  constitution  may  be 
improved  by  a  sea-voyage,  and  change  of  air ! 

Let  it  be  carefully  remembered,  that  the  topics  insisted  upon  by  the 
objectors  to  the  Bible  Society  are  precisely  those  on  which  the  papists 
have  been  wont  to  insist  in  their  controversy  with  Protestants, — the 
obscurity  of  the  Scriptures,  the  danger  of  misinterpretation,  and  the 
facility  with  which  they  may  be  wrested  to  the  support  of  heresy  and 
schism.  It  is  surely  little  to  the  credit  of  our  opponents,  that  they 
have  no  other  weapons  to  attack  us  with  but  what  have  been  unde- 
niably forged  in  the  camp  of  the  Philistines.  It  would,  unquestionably, 
be  an  ill  omen  to  this  country,  if  pleas  drawn  from  the  supposed 
insufficiency  of  Scripture  should  be  again  received,  and  become  popular, 
which  have  been  the  principal  means,  in  former  ages,  of  involving 
the  world  in  the  darkness  of  superstition  and  idolatry.  The  perversion 
of  the  Bible  can  proceed  only  from  the  corruption  of  its  readers  : — 
now,  what  is  the  remedy  for  this  corruption  but  the  Scriptures  them- 
selves ?  Have  they  who  oppose  our  proceeding  discovered,  in  the 
plenitude  of  their  wisdom,  any  better  corrective  of  the  ill  propensities 
of  the  heart,  the  attachment  to  vice,  a  conceit  of  superior  understanding, 
and  the  love  of  change,  which  are  the  prolific  sources  of  error,  than 
those  lively  oracles  which  God  himself  has  declared  are  able  to  make 
us  wise  unto  salvation  ?  "  The  heavens  and  the  earth,"  it  is  true, 
"  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  tlie  firmament  showeth  his  handi- 
work." This  effect,  however,  they  must  be  understood  to  produce 
only  in  minds  rightly  disposed  ;  for,  in  point  of  fact,  they  have  been 
the  innocent  means  of  enticing  millions  to  idolatry,  while  they  never, 
as  far  as  we  know,  reclaimed  a  single  individual  from  that  impiety. 
Hence  the  Psalmist,  after  celebrating  these  works  of  the  Most  High, 
directs  our  attention  to  a  superior  source  of  illumination,  adding, 
^'  The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul."  St.  Paul 
congratulates  Timothy  upon  his  having  known,  from  a  child,  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  which  were  able  to  make  him,  with  faith  in  Christ,  wise 
unto  salvation.  "  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  correction,  for  reproof,  for  instruction  in 
righteousness  ;  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  every  good  word  and  work."  When  I  reflect  on  these 
passages,  and  others  of  the  same  import,  I  feel  no  difficulty  in  acceding 
to  the  declaration  of  Lord  Francis  Osborne,  that  a  child  might  answer 
the  ablest  of  our  opponents,  provided  that  child  were  a  Christian. 

It  is  asserted  that  we  have  no  reason  to  expect  the  conversion  of 
foreign  nations  in  consequence  of  the  sole  perusal  of  the  sacred 
volume  ;  and  in  support  of  this  opinion  our  adversaries  urge  a  passage 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  425 

in  the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans  : — "  How  shall  they  call  on 
him  on  whom  they  have  not  believed;  and  how  shall  they  believe  on 
him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard ;  and  how  shall  they  hear  without 
a  preacher?"  This  inference  appears  to  me  to  be  founded  upon  an 
entire  misconstruction  of  the  passage:  the  apostle  means  to  distinguish 
between  the  situation  of  those  who  are  necessarily  unacquainted  with 
the  character  of  the  Saviour,  and  that  of  the  persons  to  whom  this 
information  was  conveyed ;  without  intending  to  determine,  or  at  least 
to  lay  any  stress  on,  the  precise  mode  of  communication  by  which 
they  obtained  it.  This  is  the  more  manifest  from  the  extension  of 
meaning  in  which  the  term  preach  is  used  by  the  same  writer : — "  For 
Moses,"  saith  the  same  St.  Paul,  "  hath  in  every  city  them  that  preach 
him,  being  read  in  the  synagogue  every  Sabbath-day."  But  such  is 
the  want  of  candour  on  the  part  of  our  adversaries,  and  such  the 
unworlliy  artifices  by  which  they  pervert  the  language  of  Scripture 
from  the  simplicity  and  majesty  of  its  meaning. 

It  might  be  naturally  concluded,  from  this  species  of  objection  to 
the  Bible  Society,  that  our  opponents  were  distinguished  by  a  more 
than  ordinary  portion  of  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity  in 
foreign  parts,  by  the  aid  of  missionaries  :  I  sincerely  wish  the  result 
of  an  attention  to  facts  were  such  as  would  justify  this  inference. 
The  friends  of  the  Bible  Society,  it  is  well  known,  are  the  warmest 
supporters  of  foreign  missions  ;  and  the  holy  flame  by  which  they  are 
animated  expands  in  all  directions,  stimulating  tliem  at  otice  to  the 
most  active  exertions  in  the  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  at  home, 
and  for  the  support  of  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  in  pagan  countries. 
When  we  compare  with  their  conduct  the  coldness  and  indiff*erence 
of  our  adversaries  to  this  object,  we  are  compelled  to  perceive  that 
the  invidious  preference  they  give  to  one  mode  of  doing  good  is  not 
so  much  to  be  ascribed  to  their  peculiar  attachment  to  it,  as  to  a  desire 
of  depreciating  and  depressing  the  importance  of  another. 

Permit  me  to  close  these  observations  (for  the  length  of  which  I 
ought  already  to  apologize  to  the  respectable  audience  I  am  addressing) 
with  briefly  noticing  some  of  the  indirect,  though  important,  advantages 
likely  to  result  from  the  establishment  and  progress  of  the  Bible 
Society.  The  direct  benefit  we  contemplate  as  the  fruit  of  this  insti- 
tution will  undoubtedly  be  reaped  by  that  innumerable  muhitude, 
among  all  nations,  who  by  means  of  it  will  be  furnished  with  an 
opportunity  of  perusing  the  sacred  volume ;  InU  there  are  other  collateral 
advantages  of  the  most  important  kind  which  have  already  been  expe- 
rienced in  part,  and  may  be  expected  to  accrue  still  more  hereafter, 
from  the  admirable  society  of  which  this  is  an  auxiliary  branch. 
Among  these  we  cannot  pass  over  its  tendency  to  promote  a  good 
understanding  among  Christians  of  diflerent  denominations.  It  pretends 
not,  indeed,  to  cast  any  light  on  the  questions  which  have  unhappily 
divided  the  Christian  world ;  but  as  far  as  the  objects  of  it  are 
concerned,  it  consigns  them  to  oblivion  ; — it  presents  a  common  ground 
of  co-operation,  and  a  centre  of  union,  without  a  sacrifice  of  principle, 
or  the  surrender  of  the  smallest  atom  of  the   respective  opinions  and 


426  SPEECH  AT  AN  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING  OF 

practices  by  which  we  are  distinguished.  Who  but  the  Author  and 
Giver  of  all  concord  could  have  put  into  the  hearts  of  the  children  of 
men  a  design  so  beneficial  and  godlike,  so  adapted  to  allay  the  heats 
and  animosities  which  have  so  often  disturbed  the  peace  of  society, 
and  disfigured  our  common  Christianity  ?  Ii  is  like  the  "  precious 
ointment  upon  the  head,  that  ran  down  upon  the  beard,  even  Aaron's 
beard,  that  went  down  to  the  skirts  of  his  garments."  It  is,  indeed, 
a  most  sacred  perfume ;  and  while  it  is  so  abundantly  poured  out  in 
the  view  of  all  nations,  I  cannot  but  imagine  I  see  it  ascending  in 
clouds  of  incense  to  heaven,  grateful  to  God,  to  his  saints,  and  to 
the  holy  angels,  consecrating  this  happy  soil,  and  drawing  down  upon 
it  a  copious  shower  of  benedictions  and  blessings.  How  much  una- 
nimity strengthens,  and  discord  enfeebles,  the  sinews  of  empire,  is  too 
obvious  to  need  to  be  insisted  on ;  nor  was  there  ever  a  period  in  the 
history  of  Great  Britain  when  the  former  was  more  to  be  desired  or  the 
latter  more  to  be  deprecated.  The  Bible  Society  is  a  solemn  and  public 
recognition,  calculated  beyond  any  event  that  has  yet  transpired  to 
confound  infidelity,  and  to  expel  from  the  nation  the  last  relics  of  that 
detestable  impiety,  to  shut  up  every  crevice  of  the  infernal  -pit,  and 
disperse  every  atom  of  the  pestilential  stream.  The  sophistry  of 
infidels  had  been  successfully  confuted  by  a  succession  of  able  writers  ; 
they  have  retired,  baffled,  from  the  field,  their  arrows  spent,  their 
ammunition  exhausted ;  and  nothing  remained  but  to  signalize  the 
victory  by  a  public  monument,  and  to  imbody  the  national  sentiment 
by  erecting  a  public  trophy  out  of  the  spoils  of  the  enemy.  This 
idea  the  Bible  Society  has  nobly  realized,  by  taking  pledges  from  the 
statesmen,  the  senators,  the  nobles  of  the  land,  of  their  devoted  attach- 
ment to  the  Word  of  God :  they  have  publicly  lifted  up  their  voice, 
and  declared,  in  the  face  of  all  Europe,  that  the  Bible  is  the  religion 
of  Great  Britain.  What  lustre  does  this  shed  upon  our  country !  It 
appears  the  grand  seminary  of  Christian  principle :  perhaps  there  is 
no  single  moment,  night  or  day,  in  which  some  voice  does  not  rise  up 
to  heaven  in  its  behalf:  and  prayer  is  the  grand  key  that  unlocks  the 
celestial  treasury. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  hope  that  the  attachment  to  the  gospel  avowed 
by  those  who  have  co-operated  in  the  measures  of  this  society,  will  be 
followed  by  an  increased  attention  on  their  part  to  explore  its  contents, 
to  imbibe  its  spirit,  and  to  regulate  their  lives  by  its  precepts  ;  and  that 
thus  the  interests  of  vital  Christianity  may  keep  pace  with  the  more 
extensive  promulgation  of  revealed  truth.  Let  our  activity  in  the 
cause  be  followed  up  by  an  increased  spirit  of  attachment  and  investiga- 
tion ;  let  us  earnestly  desire  to  taste  that  bread  of  life  which  it  is  the 
property  of  this  society  to  communicate :  then  shall  we  be  a  happy 
because  a  holy  people,  and  this  will  throw  around  us  a  greater  splendour 
than  Roman  or  Grecian  genius  could  bestow.  Should  the  sentiments 
of  that  divine  book  take  possession  of  the  heart,  and  mould  the  character 
of  the  inhabitants  of  this  country,  it  would  secure  to  the  nation  a  higher 
protection  than  all  its  military  and  naval  preparations ;  and  even  the 
rocks  with  which  our  isle  is  girt  would  in  comparison  be  a  feeble 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  427 

rampart  against  the  assaults  of  our  enemy.  With  perfect  composure 
we  leave  the  decision  of  this  great  controversy — and  a  greater  never 
engaged  the  attention  of  mankind — to  the  arbitration  of  the  Supreme 
Judge,  without  the  smallest  apprehension  that  we  shall  be  called  to  an 
account — in  that  day  when  the  earth  and  the  works  thereof  shall  be 
burnt  up,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat — for  having 
unrolled  too  widely  that  volume  which  discloses  to  the  eye  of  faith  the 
realities  and  prospects  of  eternity.  Nor  will  it  be  deemed  presumption 
if  I  affirm,  that  in  a  dying  hour,  when  the  interests  and  passions  which 
now  agitate  us  shall  shrink  to  their  due  dimensions,  it  will  afford  us 
more  satisfaction  in  the  retrospect  to  have  been  the  friends  than  the 
£nemies  of  the  Bible  Society. 


A    SPEECH, 


DELIVERED   AT 


THE  GUILDHALL,  LEICESTER, 

Tuesday,  July  15,  1817. 

AT   THE    SEVENTH    ANNIVERSARY   OF    THE    AUXU.IARY   BIBLE    SOCIETY. 


It  has  been  usual  on  these  occasions  to  eulogize  the  Bible  Society, 
I  will  not  say  beyond  its  merits,  for  they  are  more  than  equal  to  the 
powers  of  the  most  exalted  panegyric ;  but  the  frequency  of  these 
encomiums  must  be  my  apology  for  saying  but  little  on  that  topic  at 
present.  The  stores  of  rhetoric  appear  to  me  to  be  exhausted  ;  while 
every  department  of  nature  and  of  art  has  been  summoned  and  made 
to  contribute  its  share  to  the  illustration  of  the  divine  simplicity  of  its 
principle,  the  sanctity  of  its  object,  and  the  extent  and  grandeur  of  hs 
operations.  Never  was  there  an  institution  which  at  once  went  so  far 
forward  in  the  distribution  of  its  benefits,  and  exerted  such  a  reflex 
energy  on  its  members  and  patrons,  producing  a  generous  enthusiasm, 
which  kindles  at  every  step,  and  is  raised  to  a  more  intense  degree  by 
every  fresh  achievement. 

I  consider  this  society  as  a  new  moral  power,  which,  combining  the 
energies  of  Christendom  in  one  great  effort,  promises  to  change  the 
face  of  the  universe ;  while,  in  imitation  of  Him  in  whose  cause  it  is 
enlisted,  it  travels  in  the  greatness  of  its  strength,  "  mighty  to  save." 
It  possesses  every  characteristic  of  the  work  of  God,  in  which  the 
simplest  means  are  made  to  produce  the  greatest  effects ;  where  there 
is  the  utmost  economy  in  the  contrivance,  and  the  greatest  splendour 
and  magnificence  in  the  design.  The  imbecility  of  man  appears  in 
the  littleness  of  his  ends,  which  he  accomplishes,  for  the  most  part,  by 
complicated  and  laborious  operations.  Omnipotence,  on  the  contrary, 
places  opulence  in  the  end,  and  parsimony  in  the  means.  While  our 
pride  is  mortified  by  perceiving  how  little  we  can  effect  by  the  greatest 
efforts,  the  Almighty  touches  a  secret  spring  known  only  to  himself, 
and  impresses  a  single  motion,  which  propagates  itself  in  circles 
continually  extending,  till  it  reaches  the  extremity  of  the  universe, 
and  diffuses  order  and  happiness  through  regions  most  remote  from  its 
origin,  and  most  unconscious  of  its  cause. 


SPEECH  TO  THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  429 

Of  so  similar  a  character  is  the  Bible  Society,  and  so  analogous  to 
the  movements  of  Divine  power,  tliat  it  appears  to  me  it  would  be 
impious  not  to  acknowledge  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  in  its  first  con- 
ception, as  much  as  the  superintendence  of  Providence  in  its  support. 
To  fix  upon  a  course  of  action  which  gives  scope  to  every  virtuous 
energy,  while  it  stands  perfectly  aloof  from  the  spirit  of  party, — whicli 
draws  towards  itself  the  best  propensities  of  our  common  nature,  and 
unites  the  pious  of  every  nation  and  profession  in  one  harmonious 
family, — is  not  the  work  of  a  mortal ;  it  bespeaks  the  finger  of  God. 
Its  direct  benefits  are  too  obvious  to  escape  the  most  careless  observa- 
tion ;  but  the  indirect  influence  it  exerts  in  harmonizing  the  spirits  and 
conciliating  the  alTections  of  such  as  had  long  been  alienated  from  each 
other,  is  so  remarkable  as  to  make  it  doubtful  whether  its  instruments 
or  its  objects, — whether  those  who  share  or  those  who  dispense  its 
munificence, — are  the  greatest  gainers. 

The  utility  of  this  admirable  institution,  however,  has  been  called  in 
question,  its  constitution  censured,  and  its  operations  arraigned.  To 
give  the  Bible  to  all  classes  and  descriptions,  without  note  or  comment, 
is  represented  by  some  as  a  dangerous  experiment,  adapted  to  perplex 
and  mislead  uncultivated  minds.  Excellent  as  the  Scriptures  are 
allowed  to  be,  some  preparation,  it  is  asserted,  is  necessary  ere  they 
are  communicated  in  their  full  extent,  and  that  the  best  use  that  can 
be  immediately  made  of  them  is  to  compose  and  distribute  such 
selections  and  abridgments  as  seem  best  calculated  for  popular 
instruction. 

That  some  portions  of  the  sacred  volume  are  of  more  universal 
interest  than  others, — that  the  New  Testament,  for  example,  has  a 
more  immediate  relation  to  our  prospects  and  to  our  duties  than  the 
Old, — is  freely  conceded  :  just  as  one  star  differs  from  another  star  in 
glory,  though  they  are  all  placed  in  the  same  firmament,  and  are  the 
work  of  the  same  hand.  But  to  this  restrictive  system,  this  jealous 
policy,  which  would  exclude  a  part  of  the  word  of  God  from  universal 
inspection  and  perusal,  we  feel  insuperable  o1)jections ;  nor  are  we 
disposed  to  ascribe  to  any  description  of  men  whatever  that  control 
over  Divine  communications  wliich  such  a  measure  implies.  We  are 
persuaded  that  no  man  possesses  a  right  to  curtail  the  gifts  of  God, 
or  to  deal  out  with  a  sparing  hand  what  was  intended  for  universal 
patrimony.  If  the  manner  in  which  revelation  was  imparted  be  such 
as  makes  it  manifest  that  it  was  originally  designed  for  the  benefit  of 
all,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  any  man  can  have  a  right,  by 
his  interference,  to  render  it  inaccessible. 

The  question  itself,  whetlier  it  was  designed  to  be  communicated  to 
mankind  at  large  without  distinction,  or  to  a  particular  class,  with  a 
discretionary  power  of  comnuuiicating  it  at  such  times  and  in  such 
proportions  as  they  might  deem  fit,  can  only  be  determined  by  itself. 
If  it  bear  decisive  indications  of  its  being  intended  for  private  custody, — if 
it  be  found  to  affirm  or  even  to  insinuate  that  it  is  not  meant  for  universal 
circulation, — we  must  submit  to  hold  it  at  the  discretion  of  its  legitimate 
guardians,  and  to  accept  with  becoming  gratitude  such  portions  as  they 


430  SPEECH  AT  AN  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING  OF 

are  pleased  to  bestow.  From  the  word  of  God  there  can  be  no  appeal : 
it  must  decide  its  own  character,  and  determine  its  own  pretensions. 
Thus  much  we  must  be  allowed  to  assume :  that  if  it  was  originally 
given  to  mankind  indiscriminately,  no  power  upon  earth  is  entitled  to 
restrict  it ;  because,  on  the  supposition  which  we  are  now  making, 
since  every  man's  original  right  in  it  was  equal,  that  right  can  be 
cancelled  by  no  authority  but  that  which  bestowed  it.  If  it  was  at 
first  promulgated  under  the  character  of  a  universal  standard  of  faith 
and  practice,  we  are  bound  to  recognise  it  in  that  character ;  and  every 
attempt  to  alter  it,  to  convert  into  private  what  was  originally  public 
property,  or  to  make  a  monopoly  of  a  universal  grant,  is  an  act  of 
extreme  presumption  and  impiety.  It  is  to  assume  a  superiority  over 
revelation  itself. 

Let  us  see  then  how  the  matter  stands.  Let  us  ascend  to  its 
original,  and  examine  in  what  shape  it  was  first  communicated. 

Though  we  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  Bible  as  one  book,  it  is 
in  truth  a  collection  of  many,  composed  at  different  periods  and  by 
different  writers,  as  holy  men  of  God  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

To  speak  first  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  Old  Testament  was 
distributed  by  the  Jews  into  three  parts : — the  Pentateuch  ;  the  earlier 
and  later  Prophets,  including  some  historical  compositions;  and  the 
Hagiographs,  or  Holy  Writings,  consisting  chiefly  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
the  Proverbs,  and  the  Psalms. 

With  respect  to  the  Pentateuch,  it  is  a  matter  of  notoriety  that  it 
was  delivered  with  the  utmost  publicity,  and  was  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  public  and  municipal  law  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth,  which 
every  king,  on  his  ascending  the  throne,  was  commanded  to  copy  with 
his  own  hand,  as  the  perpetual  rule  of  his  government ;  and  every  head 
of  a  family  to  teach  and  inculcate  on  his  children,  when  he  sat  in  his 
house,  and  when  he  walked  by  the  way.  It  was  first  proclaimed  from 
the  top  of  Mount  Sinai,  with  ineffable  splendour,  in  the  hearing  of  the 
whole  nation,  prefaced  with  the  remarkable  words,  "  Hear,  O  Israel." 
There  is  surely  no  pretence  for  representing  it  as  a  deposite  committed 
to  a  particular  class,  when  an  accurate  acquaintance  with  it  was  re- 
quisite in  order  to  regulate  the  private  as  well  as  public  hfe  of  every 
Israelite.  Though,  in  process  of  time,  its  interpretation  gave  birth  to 
a  particular  profession,  whose  followers  are  styled  scribes  in  the  New 
Testament,  nothing  was  further  from  their  thoughts  than  the  assump- 
tion of  a  right  to  withhold  it  from  public  perusal :  their  employment 
was,  partly  by  an  accurate  transcription  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the 
copies,  and  partly  to  elucidate  its  obscurities. 

If  we  descend  to  the  Prophets,  we  shall  find  them  addressing  their 
instructions,  and  announcing  their  predictions,  in  the  most  public 
manner,  to  all  descriptions  of  persons — to  princes,  to  nobles,  to  the 
populace,  in  crowded  assemblies,  in  places  of  the  most  public  resort. 
Such  was  the  manner  in  which  Jeremiah  prophesied : — "  I  am  full," 
saith  he,  "  of  the  fury  of  the  Lord  ;  I  am  weary  with  holding  in  ;  I  Avill 
pour  it  out  upon  the  children  abroad,  and  upon  the  assembly  of  young 
men  together."  (Jer.  vi.  II.)     When  strong  political  reasons  seemed 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  431 

to  dictate  a  different  proceeding,  when  he  was  violently  importuned  by 
his  sovereign  to  conceal  his  predictions,  lest  he  should  weaken  the 
hands  of  the  people  and  encourage  their  enemies,  he  remained  inflexible, 
and  continued  to  divulge  the  suggestions  of  inspiration  with  the  same 
publicity  as  before.  Yet  it  is  the  prophetic  part  of  Scripture  which 
is  the  most  obscure,  and  most  liable  to  be  perverted  to  the  purposes 
of  popular  delusion. 

Of  the  Hagiographs  little  need  be  said.  As  they  consist  chiefly 
of  maxims  of  civil  prudence,  sentiments  of  devotion,  and  sublime 
descriptions  of  the  Deity  and  his  works,  it  is  probable  none  will  contend 
for  their  restricted  circulation. 

Let  us  take  a  rapid  glance  at  the  New  Testament.  Here  the 
Gospels  will  claim  our  first  attention  :  and  with  respect  to  these,  if  we 
are  to  credit  the  earliest  ecclesiastical  writers,  they  are  a  mere  abstract 
of  the  preaching  of 'the  respective  apostles  and  evangelists  whose 
names  they  bear.  We  are  informed,  that  when  they  were  about  to 
leave  certain  countries,  where  they  had  been  employed  for  a  con- 
siderable time  in  disseminating  the  gospel,  the  inhabitants  of  those 
districts  were  anxious  to  possess  a  permanent  record  of  the  principal 
facts  in  which  they  had  been  instructed,  that  by  reading  them  at  their 
leisure  they  might  in  the  absence  of  their  teachers  impress  them  on 
their  memory.  The  Gospels  of  Mark  and  Luke  are  affirmed,  by  the 
earliest  historians,  to  have  been  composed  from  the  preaching  of  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  not  to  have  been  published  until  they  had 
received  the  entire  approbation  of  those  apostles.  This  part  of  Scrip- 
ture, then,  supplies  no  pretence  or  apology  for  the  practice  of  restricted 
distribution. 

The  Epistles  next  come  in  order :  and  these,  as  is  evident  from 
their  inscriptions,  were  addressed  to  whole  assemblies  of  the  faithful ; 
in  which  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  unlearned,  Jew  and  gentile,  were 
incorporated  on  terms  of  religious  equality.  They  were  also  read 
publicly  every  Lord's-day ;  in  the  devotional  exercises  of  which  the 
recitation  of  the  Scriptures,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  synagogue, 
occupied  a  conspicuous  place.  We  find  St.  Paul  strongly  adjuring 
one  of  the  societies  to  which  he  wrote  to  take  care  that  his  epistle 
was  read  to  "  all  the  holy  brethren." 

There  is  one  extraordinary  book,  of  a  character  totally  distinct  from 
the  rest,  which  closes  the  canon  of  inspiration.  The  book  to  which  I 
refer,  you  are  aware,  is  the  Revelation  of  St.  John; — a  composition 
distinguished,  above  all  others,  by  a  profusion  of  obscure,  figurative 
diction  ;  delineating,  by  a  sort  of  hieroglyphics,  the  principal  revolu- 
tions destined  to  befall  the  Christian  church,  from  the  earliest  times 
till  the  consummation  of  all  things.  This  portion  of  Scripture  is  a 
fertile  mine  of  erroneous,  extravagant  conjecture,  and  supplies,  by  its 
injudicious  interpretation,  more  gratification  to  a  heated  imagination 
to  a  taste  for  the  marvellous  and  incredible,  than  the  whole  of  the 
New  Testament  besides  ;  insomuch,  that  few  have  been  found  capable 
of  preserving  a  perfect  sobriety  and  composure  in  the  midst  of  its 
stupendous  scenery,  where  the  curtain  rises  and  falls  so  often,  where 


432  SPEECH  AT  AN  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING  OF 

new  creations  so  rapidly  succeed  each  other,  accompanied  by  myriads 
of  the  angelic  order,  and  the  sound  of  trumpets,  and  of  voices,  and 
thunderings,  and  lightnings.  Yet  it  is  sufficiently  remarkable,  that 
this  is  the  only  book,  to  the  perusal  of  which  an  express  benediction 
is  attached  :  "  Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and  they  that  hear  the  words 
of  this  prophecy."  Its  integrity  is  also  guarded  and  secured  by  a 
fearful  measure  denounced  against  such  as  shall  presume  to  alter  it 
in  the  minutest  tittle,  by  adding  to  or  taking  away  from  its  words. 
The  Holy  Spirit,  foreseeing,  what  actually  ensued,  that  the  peculiar 
features  of  this  prophecy  would  excite  the  prejudices  of  some,  and  in 
others  its  obscurity  induce  neglect,  judged  it  necessary  to  employ  a 
special  precaution  against  its  falling  into  contempt  or  oblivion. 

Thus  it  appears,  from  a  rapid  induction  of  particulars,  that  the  Bible 
is  a  common  property,  over  which  there  is  no  human  control ;  that,  as 
"  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,"  so  it  is  all  "  profitable 
for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness, 
that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  for  every  good 
word  and  work." 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  said,  it  is  also  proper  to  remark,  that 
translations  of  the  sacred  book  were  early  made,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
unlearned,  in  the  vernacular  language  of  the  countries  into  which 
Christianity  had  spread ;  that  various  versions  in  the  Latin  w^ere 
published  in  the  West,  and  the  Syriac  in  the  East,  either  during  the 
lives  of  the  apostles  or  in  the  period  immediately  succeeding :  nor 
was  it  ever  made  a  question  dining  the  first  centuries,  whether  the 
inspired  writings  should  be  laid  open  to  univepsal  inspection.  The 
Christian  fathers  Avere  well  known  to  have  inculcated  their  perusal  on 
all  sorts  of  men ;  nor  are  the  most  celebrated  of  them,  St.  Austin  and 
St.  Chrysostom,  ever  more  eloquent  than  when  engaged  in  unfolding 
their  excellence,  and  expatiating  on  their  utility,  to  persons  of  every 
description. 

It  was  not  till  "the  man  of  sin"  had  placed  himself  in  the  temple 
of  God,  and  exalted  himself  "  above  all  that  is  called  God,  and  that  is 
worshipped,"  that  a  different  policy  prevailed,  and  the  people  were 
told  that  they  must  be  content  to  derive  their  religious  information  only 
through  the  medium  of  priests. 

Is  it  possible  to  conceive  a  greater  insult  ?  If  we  should  resent  the 
attempt  to  disturb  an  ancient  possession,  and  to  remove  the  landmarks 
which  bound  and  ascertain  the  inheritance  of  our  fathers,  what  ought 
we  to  feel  when  a  scheme  is  set  on  foot  to  deprive  us  of  the  record 
of  our  salvation,  of  the  charter  of  our  immortality  ?  Who  are  they 
who  pretend  a  riglit  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  contents  of  revelation, — • 
to  determine  what  is  proper  to  be  communicated  and  what  withheld, 
as  though  they  were  sifting  the  chaff  from  the  wheat  ?  Is  it  come  to 
this,  that  tlie  medicine  of  life  is  to  be  dealt  out  with  a  sparing  and 
cautious  hand,  and  mixed  with  foreign  ingredients,  like  arsenic  or 
hemlock,  which  are  only  safe  when  administered  in  a  diluted  form, 
and  in  small  quantities  'l  What  is  it  which  has  lifted  tiiese  pretenders 
to  such  an  envied  superiority  over  their  fellow-creatures,  while  the 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  433 

trhole  species,  sick  and  infirm,  are  consigned  to  the  skill  of  the  same 
great  Physician,  and  are  either  in  a  siaie  of  spiritual  death,  or  imder 
one  and  the  same  process  of  cure  ? 

Apprehensive  as  I  am  of  eihausting  your  patience,  there  are  yet 
two  considerations  to  which  1  would  direct  your  attention,  sufficient  to 
demonstrate  the  importance  of  not  relinquishing  that  right  with  which 
God  and  nature  have  invested  you. 

First,  The  great  it>ass  of  mankind  hare  no  possible  motives  to  tempt 
them  to  j>ervert  the  dictates  of  inspiration.  The  Bible  is  safest  in  the 
custody  of  those  who  have  uo  tevnptation  to  abuse  it,  by  forcing  upon 
it  a  language  foreign  from  its  original  invejition.  Such  is  the  precise 
situation  of  the  great  body  of  the  people^  Their  concern  in  religion 
is  of  the  purest  Jind  most  imsuspicious  nature,  since  the  only  advantage 
which  it  is  conceivable  they  can  derive  from  it  is  assistance  towards 
holy  living  and  dying.  If  it  fail  to  put  them  in  possession  of  a  share 
in  die  common  salvation,  there  is  no  subordinate  end  to  be  answered. 
no  private  emolument  attainable  by  its  means  to  compensate  for  their 
loss.  If  it  be  ineffectual  to  enlighten  and  to  save  them,  there  is  no 
other  benefit  wltich  they  can  flatter  themselves  with  the  hope  of  deriving 
from  it.  You  in  this  assembly  who  sustain  no  clerical  character 
possess  this  advantaje,  at  least,  over  the  ministers  of  religion,  that 
you  have  no  temptauons  to  make  a  gain  of  godliness.  Your  religion 
either  promotes  your  eternal  welfare,  or  it  is  nothing  to  you.  How 
far  this  is  from  being  the  case  with  the  Romish  hierarchy,  through  all 
its  ranks  and  gradations,  from  his  holiness  to  the  meanest  ecclesiastic, 
few  of  you  need  to  be  inlbrmed.  The  loftiest  pretensions  to  tmiversal 
empire,  the  prostration  of  Christendom  at  tlieir  feet,  a  plenary  power 
of  absolution,  of  openinj  the  gates  of  purgaton*  and  of  paradise  : — 
this  gigantic  domimon,  extending  to  the  linng  and  the  dead,  founds 
itself  entirely  on  a  penened  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures :  and 
were  they  laid  open  to  the  people  in  their  true  intent  and  meaning* 
the  whole  fabric  would  melt  and  disappear  like  a  cloud.  TMien  we 
remember  this,  we  cease  to  be  surprised  at  the  extreme  animosity 
which  his  holiness  has  evinced  to  the  free  circulation  of  the  Scriptures. 
Their  circulation  is  the  sure  presage  of  his  destruction ;  and  the  roar 
of  his  bull  (if  I  may  be  allowed  a  pun  on  so  serious  a  subject)  is  but 
the  instinctive  en.-  of  a  beast  which  feels  itself  goaded  to  madness  by 
the  operations  of  the  Bible  Society.  To  commit  the  custody  of  the 
Bible  to  men  who  have  so  deep  and  vital  an  interest  in  its  suppression, 
would  be  to  commit  the  lamb  to  the  care  of  the  wolf.  No,  my 
countr\-men !  the  situation  of  his  holiness  possesses  nothing  in  coram<m 
with  ours :  and  our  feelings  accord  to  our  situations.  He  calls  for 
darkness  (and  well  he  may),  to  prevent  the  detection  ol  his  errors ; 
we,  for  light,  to  conduct  us  in  the  pursuit  of  truth.  He  courts  the 
shade,  to  conceal  his  enormities  :  we  ask  for  illiunination,  to  enable  us 
to  perform  our  duties.  TTie  book  which  we  are  employed  in  circulating 
sufficiently  solves  the  problem  : — **  He  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light, 
neither  cometh  to  the  light,  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved :  be 
that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the  light,  that  his  deeds  mav  be    made 

Yoh.  11.— E  e 


434  SPEECH  AT  AN  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING  OF 

manifest  that  they  are  wrought  in  God."  When  the  Romish  church 
found  she  had  deviated  too  far  from  the  reUgionofthe  New  Testament 
to  render  a  reconcihation  practicable,  she  proceeded  to  take  away  the 
key  of  knowledge,  by  opposing  every  possible  obstacle  to  its  progress  ; 
and  having  availed  herself  of  the  ignorance  of  the  age  and  the  apathy 
of  the  people  to  establish  her  claims  to  infallibility,  she  became  a 
standard  to  herself.  Thus  she  rendered  detection  impossible :  nor 
did  she  ever  feel  herself  safe  till  the  stage  was  completely  darkened, 
till  every  chink  and  crevice  was  closed  through  which  a  ray  could 
penetrate.  Thus  was  the  reign  of  superstition  established  :  but  were 
we  to  attempt  a  recital  of  a  thousandth  part  of  the  fearful  impieties  she 
was  o-uilty  of,  and  che  bloody  tragedies  she  acted  in  the  dark, — her 
impostures,  oppressions,  cruelties,  and  murders, — we  should  detain  you 
till  midnight,  and  leave  the  tale  half-told.  Suffice  it  to  observe,  that 
this  mystery  of  iniquity  was  founded  on  a  prevailing  ignorance  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  was  completed  by  reducing  them  to  a  monopoly. 

Secondly,  The  next  remark  to  which  I  would  request  your  attention 
is,  that  heresies  have  seldom  or  never  taken  their  rise  from  the  mass 
of  the  people.  Look  at  the  history,  trace  the  origin  of  the  principal 
corruptions  of  Christianity  which  have  prevailed  at  different  periods, 
and  you  will  uniformly  find  that  they  commenced  in  the  higher  classes, 
among  men  of  leisure  and  speculation  ;  that  they  were  the  product  of 
perverted  ingenuity  and  of  unsanctified  talent.  Adapted  to  subserve 
the  purposes  of  avarice  and  ambition,  they  were  the  invention  of 
spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places.  The  commonalty,  tenacious  of 
the  habits  of  thinking  and  acting  to  which  they  have  been  trained,  are 
slow  in  adopting  novelties,  and  the  last  to  be  misled  by  the  illusions  of 
hypothesis,  or  the  false  refinements  of  theory.  The  progress  of  opinion 
is  from  the  higher  to  the  lower  orders  ;  and  it  is  as  unnatural  for  it  to 
begin  at  the  bottom  as  for  water  to  ascend  from  the  valleys  to  the 
hills.  The  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  is  too  much  at  war  with 
common  sense  to  have  originated  with  the  common  people,  any  more 
than  the  doctrines  of  purgatory,  auricular  confession,  the  worship  of 
the  host,  or  the  infellibility  of  the  pope ;  all  of  which  were  gradually 
obtruded  on  the  laity  by  the  artifices  of  a  designing  priesthood,  whose 
interest  and  amiiition  they  promoted.  Far  from  running  into  these 
absurdities  of  their  own  accord,  the  people,  harassed,  confounded,  and 
dismayed,  were  hunted  into  the  toils  by  men  who  made  merchandise 
of  souls.  Let  but  the  great  body  of  the  people  be  enlightened  by  the 
word  of  God,  let  them  comprehend  its  truths,  and  imbibe  its  maxims, 
and  they  will  form  the  firmest  bulwarks  against  the  encroachments  of 
popery,  as  well  as  every  other  erroneous  and  delusive  system.  It  is 
in  a  virtuous  and  an  enlightened  population,  and  especially  in  a 
yeomanry  and  peasantry  informed  and  actuated  by  the  true  spirit  of 
religion,  we  look  for  the  security  and  preservation  of  its  best  interests. 
It  was  among  them  that  Christianity  commenced  its  earliest  triumphs ; 
among  them  the  Reformation  begun  by  Luther  found  its  first  and  fastest 
friends  :  and  as  it  was  in  this  department  of  society  our  holy  religion 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  435 

first  penetrated,  should  the  time  arrive  for  its  disappearance  in  other 
quarters,  it  is  here  that  it  will  find  its  last  and  safe  retreat. 

An  ingenious  allusion  was  made,  in  your  report,  to  Catholic  eman- 
cipation— a  subject  on  which  the  public  mind  is  much  divided.  To 
agitate  the  question  of  the  expediency  of  that  measure  on  the  present 
occasion  would  be  higlily  improper ;  but  I  may  be  permitted  to  remark, 
that  however  our  sentiments  may  vary  on  the  subject  of  emancipation,- 
considered  in  a  political  light,  we  are  unanimous  in  desiring  to  besto\< 
that  moral  emancipation  which  is  of  infinitely  greater  value,  and  which 
will  best  ensure  the  Avise  improvement  of  the  liberty  Catholics  possess, 
as  well  as  of  the  power  they  aspire  to.  We  are  most  solicitous  to 
emancipate  them  from  that  intolerable  yoke  of  superstition  and  priest- 
craft, under  which  reason  is  crippled  and  made  dwarfish,  conscience 
is  oppressed,  and  religion  expires.  We  are  perfectly  convinced,  that 
nothing  will  so  essentially  contribute  to  raise  our  fellow-subjects  in 
Ireland  to  their  just  intellectual  and  moral  elevation,  as  the  wide  and 
unimpeded  circulation  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 

Let  us  then  proceed  with  unabated  ardour  m  this  glorious  career. 
Let  us  endeavour  to  give  as  wide  an  extension  as  possible  to  the  waters 
of  life.  Let  them  flow  freely,  in  opposition  to  the  narrow  and  mis- 
chievous policy  Avhich  would  confine  them  in  artificial  pools  and  reser-" 
voirs,  where  they  become  stagnant  and  putrid.  Let  us  join  our  prayers 
with  our  efllbrts,  that  the  word  of  God  may  have  "  free  course  and  be 
glorified,"  whatever  opposing  force  it  may  sweep  away  in  its  progress  i 
and  should  his  holiness  the  pope,  while  he  is  buffeting  with  the  waves, 
and  attempting  to  arrest  the  current,  be  thrown  down,  and  his  triple 
crown  totter  and  tumble  from  his  head,  instead  of  feeling  the  smallest 
concern,  let  us  rejoice  and  exult  in  the  sure  presage  it  will  afford  of  the 
speedy  arrival  of  that  long-looked-for  moment,  when  at  the  decree  of 
the  Eternal,  at  the  oath  of  the  archangel,  Babylon  the  Great  shall  sink 
like  lead  in  the  mighty  waters. 

Ee2 


FRAGMENT. 


SPEECH 

DELIVERED  AT  A  MEETING  OF  THE  LEICESTER  AUXILIARY  BIBLE 

SOCIETY. 


[Not  published  before.] 


If  the  Scriptures  are  in  reality  what  they  profess  to  be,  we  can  be 
at  no  loss  to  perceive  the  obligation  we  are  under  to  make  them  as 
extensively  known  as  possible.  On  this  subject  we  must  allow  them 
to  speak  for  themselves ;  they  assert  their  claim  to  be  received  as  an 
immediate  revelation  from  God,  an  inspired  guide  in  the  conduct  of  life 
and  in  the  pursuit  of  immortality,  "  a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place"  to 
direct  us  in  the  paths  of  salvation.  They  affirm  themselves  to  be  the 
voice  of  God  addressing  his  creatures  on  a  subject  of  the  last  import- 
ance. Whether  their  claim  to  this  character  is  valid  or  not,  is  a 
question  to  be  discussed  with  infidels,  not  among  Christians,  and  is 
therefore  to  be  put  out  of  view  in  discussing  the  merits  of  this  society. 
It  is  a  Christian  institution,  set  on  foot  by  professed  Christians  in  a 
Christian  land.  It  is  strange,  that  among  men  professing  Christianity 
a  doubt  should  arise  for  a  moment  on  the  propriety  of  circulating  as 
widely  as  possible  the  records  of  our  common  faith,  the  charter  of  the 
common  salvation. 

But  we  are  not  agreed  among  ourselves  on  various  articles  of  belief, 
on  the  diverse  modes  of  discipline  and  of  worship.  True  ;  nor  do  we 
profess  such  agreement :  but  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  standard  to 
which  we  must  all  appeal,  that  they  contain  the  infallible  rule  of  the 
faith  and  practice  of  Christians,  we  are  agreed ;  and  what  possible 
objection,  then,  can  a  diversity  of  opinions  on  other  subjects  create  to 
the  universal  distribution  of  the  oracles  of  God?  Are  your  peculiar 
views,  we  would  ask  the  objector,  sanctioned,  in  your  apprehension, 
by  these  oracles  1 — then,  instead  of  acting  a  hostile  part,  we  are  your 
allies  ; — for  we  are  circulating  the  very  book  on  which  your  views  are 
founded ;  we  are  diffusing  that  light,  [and]  that  only,  by  which  you 
profess  to  have  been  conducted  to  the  conclusions  at  which  you  have 
arrived.  What  greater  advantage  could  you  wish  for  the  propagation 
of  your  doctrines,  than  that  mankind  should  have  free  and  [universal] 


SPEECH  TO  THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.         437 

access  to  the  sources  of  your  own  conviction  ?  It  must  be  assumed 
for  granted  that  in  consequence  of  faithfully  consulting  its  dictates  you 
have  been  guided  aright.  Why  anticipate,  in  regard  to  others,  an 
opposite  result  1  why  suppose  it  will  bewilder  them  in  the  paths  of 
error  and  heresy,  when  your  own  experience  attests  it  has  led  you 
into  those  of  rectitude  and  truth  ?  Is  it  agreeable  to  reason  to  expect 
that  the  same  tree  shall  bring  forth  good  fruit  and  evil  fruit ;  or  that 
the  same  fountain  will  send  forth  sweet  water  and  bitter  ? 

In  the  midst  of  that  unhappy  diversity  of  sentiment  which  divides 
professing  Christians,  what  can  be  conceived  more  imexceptionably 
proper  than  the  circulation  of  that  book,  in  the  belief  of  whose  inspira- 
tion we  all  concur,  and  may  therefore  act  in  perfect  concert  and  harmony 
without  the  smallest  sacrifice  of  principle  ?  If  our  professions  are 
sincere,  we  are  in  snrh  a  course  of  proceeding,  at  once  promoting  our 
respective  views,  our  discriminating  tenets,  and  exhibiting  an  edil'ying 
example  of  unanimity  and  concord,  combining  in  one  and  the  same 
effort  the  interests  of  charity  and  of  truth. 

We  are  aware  that  destructive  errors  may  be,  and  have  been,  deduced 
from  an  erroneous  interpretation  of  the  Bible ;  there  is  nothing  so 
absurd  and  extravagant  in  the  defence  of  which  it  has  not  been  quoted  ; 
but  as  this  is  far  from  implying  any  reflection  on  that  sacred  book,  so 
it  has  uniformly  arisen  from  partial  and  defective  views  of  its  contents, 
where  single  passages  have  been  violently  torn  from  their  connexion, 
and  made  to  speak  a  language  most  remote  from  the  scope  and  design 
of  the  writer.  The  proper  antidote  to  this  evil  is  [a]  diligent  and 
.serious  perusal  of  the  whole ;  which  will  seldom  fail,  to  all  practical 
purposes,  to  ascertain  that  which  is  ambiguous,  to  elucidate  what  is 
obscure,  and  explain  what  is  figurative  and  metaphorical.  From  a  full 
conviction  that  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  Scriptures  is  the  most 
effectual  corrective  of  the  mistakes  into  which  we  may  be  betrayed 
by  the  cursory  perusal  of  detached  portions,  it  is  the  invariable  plan 
of  this  society  [to]  distribute  the  whole  of  the  Scriptures  :  nor  can  we 
sufficiently  admire  the  inconsistency  of  those  who,  deprecating  the 
danger  of  this,  propose  a  partial  distribution  of  the  sacred  volume,  when 
it  is  obvious  that  the  most  alarming  deviations  from  truth  have  arisen 
from  this  very  cause,  an  exclusive  attention  to  particular  parts,  without 
adverting  to  the  relations  they  bear  to  the  whole,  and  the  reciprocal 
light  which  one  portion  of  Revelation  derives  from  the  other.  If  "  all 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness,"  we  are  at 
a  loss  to  conceive  how  any  part  can  have  an  opposite  tendency,  or 
how  the  withholding  a  portion  of  the  instruction  it  affords  can  be  pro 
ductive  of  more  illumination  than  giving  it  in  all  its  extent.  "  The 
fooUshness  of  God  is  wiser  than  man,"  and  the  conduct  of  his  providence 
in  putting  his  revelation  into  our  hands,  without  the  smallest  limitation  or 
restriction,  affords  a  presumption,  or  rather  a  proof,  of  its  tendency  to 
good,  and  good  only ;  [while  of  the  contrary]  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
the  possibility  without  contradicting  the  decisions  of  infinite  Wisdom. 
If  a  pan  only  would  have  been  more  beneficial  than  the  whole,  only 


438  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  A  MEETING  OF 

a  part  would  have  been  given ;  or  if  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the 
whole  is  restricted  to  some  privileged  class  or  order,  without  extending 
to  mankind  at  large,  we  should  undoubtedly  have  been  furnished  with 
some  intimation  of  this,  some  mark  or  criterion  by  which  to  distinguish 
those  favoured  individuals  who  are  allowed  access  to  the  whole  counsel 
of  God.  We  certainly  are  at  a  loss  to  discern  in  the  adversaries  of 
this  institution  that  transcendent  piety,  that  lofty  superiority  to  worldly 
passions,  or  that  resplendent  exhibition  of  the  Christian  character, 
which  might  induce  a  suspicion  of  their  being,  in  some  peculiar 
manner,  the  confidential  depositaries  of  the  Divine  secrets.  Whatever 
pretensions  of  this  sort  they  may  really  possess,  we  can  only  lament 
that  extreme  modesty  and  reserve  which  has  so  eflfectually  concealed 
[them]  from  the  public  view. 

Gentlemen,  on  casting  a  survey  over  the  different  orders  into  which 
society  is  distributed,  I  am  at  an  utter  loss  to  fix  on  any  description  of 
persons  who  are  likely  to  be  injured  by  the  most  extensive  perusal  of 
the  word  of  God.  The  poor,  we  may  be  certain,  will  sustain  no  injury 
from  their  attention  to  a  book  which,  while  [it]  inculcates,  under  the 
most  awful  sanctions,  the  practice  of  honesty,  industry,  frugality,  sub- 
ordination to  lawful  authority,  contentment,  and  resignation  to  the 
allotments  of  Providence,  elevates  them  to  the  hope  of  "  an  inheritance 
incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away ;"  a  book,  which  at 
once  secures  the  observation  of  the  duties  which  attach  to  an  inferior 
condition,  and  almost  annihilates  its  evils,  by  opening  their  prospects 
into  a  state  where  all  the  inequalities  of  fortune  will  vanish,  and  the 
obscurest  and  most  neglected  piety  shall  be  crowned  with  eternal  glory. 
"  The  poor  man  rejoices  that  he  is  exalted  ;"  and  while  he  views  him- 
self as  the  member  of  Christ,  and  the  heir  of  a  blessed  immortality, 
he  can  look  with  undissembled  pity  on  the  frivolous  distinctions,  the 
fruitless  agitations,  and  the  fugitive  enjoyments  of  the  most  eminent 
and  the  most  prosperous  of  those  who  have  their  portion  in  this  world. 
The  poor  man  will  sustain  no  injury  by  exchanging  the  vexations  of 
envy  for  the  quiet  of  a  good  conscience,  and  fruitless  repinings  for  the 
consolations  of  religious  hope.  The  less  is  his  portion  in  this  life, 
the  more  ardently  will  he  cherish  and  embrace  the  promise  of  a  better, 
while  the  hope  of  that  better  exerts  a  reciprocal  influence,  in  prompting 
him  to  discharge  the  duties,  and  reconciling  him  to  the  evils,  which 
are  inseparable  from  the  present.  The  Bible  is  the  treasure  of  the 
poor,  the  solace  of  the  sick,  and  the  support  of  the  dying ;  and  while 
other  books  may  amuse  and  instruct  in  a  leisure  hour,  it  is  the  peculiar 
triumph  of  that  book  to  create  light  in  the  midst  of  darkness,  to  alle- 
viate the  sorrow  which  admits  of  no  other  alleviation,  to  direct  a  beam 
of  hope  to  the  heart  which  no  [other]  topic  of  consolation  can  reach ; 
while  guilt,  despair,  and  death  vanish  at  the  touch  of  its  holy  inspira- 
tion. There  is  something  in  the  spirit  and  diction  of  the  Bible  which 
is  found  peculiarly  adapted  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  plainest  and 
most  uncultivated  minds.  The  simple  structure  of  its  sentences,  com- 
bined with  a  lofty  spirit  of  poetry, — its  familiar  allusions  to  the  scenes 
of  nature,  and  the  trans-actions  of  common  life, — the  delightful  inter- 


THE  LEICESTER  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  439 

mixture  of  narration  with  the  doctrinal  and  preceptive  parts, — and  the 
profusion  of  miraculous  facts,  which  convert  it  into  a  sort  of  enchanted 
ground, — its  constant  advertence  to  the  Deity,  whose  perfections  it 
renders  almost  visible  and  palpable, — unite  in  bestowing  upon  it  an 
interest  which  attaches  to  no  other  performance,  and  which,  after  assidu- 
ous and  repeated  perusal,  invests  it  with  much  of  the  charm  of 
novelty :  like  the  great  orb  of  day,  at  which  we  are  wont  to  gaze  with 
imabated  astonishment  from  infancy  to  old  age.  What  other  book 
besides  the  Bible  could  be  heard  in  public  assemblies  from  year  to 
year,  with  an  attention  that  never  tires,  and  an  interest  that  never  cloys  ? 
With  few  exceptions,  let  a  portion  of  the  sacred  volume  be  recited 
in  a  mixed  multitude,  and  though  it  has  been  heard  a  thousand  times, 
a  universal  stillness  ensues,  every  eye  is  fixed,  and  every  ear  is  awake 
and  attentive.  Select,  if  you  can,  any  other  composition,  and  let  it  be 
rendered  equally  familiar  to  the  mind,  and  see  whether  it  will  produce 
this  effect. 

The  importance  of  attaching  a  distinct  sanction  to  the  rules  of  moral 
conduct  is  immediately  obvious  ;  and  whatever  eloquence  may  be  em- 
ployed in  painting  the  beauty  of  virtue,  and  the  odious  deformity  of 
vice,  will  have  little  influence  in  the  moment  of  temptation,  and  in  the 
conflicts  of  passion,  upon  the  most  cultivated  minds,  and  on  those  of 
an  inferior  description  none  at  all.  These  topics  appeal  to  feelings 
which  are  feeble  and  evanescent,  while  the  passions  to  which  they  are 
opposed  are  violent  and  intense.  Nothing  short  of  a  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  accompanied  and  enforced  with  the  prospect  of  eternal  happi- 
ness or  misery,  will  be  sufficient  to  secure  tlie  practice  of  what  is  right, 
when  vice  and  crime  are  recoiuniended  by  the  alhirements  of  pleasure, 
or  the  promise  of  immediate  advantage.  But  it  is  the  word  of  God 
only  to  which  the  sanction  of  his  authority  is  attached,  and  which 
incesanntly  reminds  us  that  the  lessons  which  it  teaches  are  not  merely 
the  dictates  of  reason,  but  the  voice  of  God.  In  human  instructions, 
however  excellent,  there  must  of  necessity  be  a  separation ;  the 
instruction  is  [in]  one  place,  the  sanction  in  another ;  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  in  the  Scriptures  alone,  they  are  combined  and  incorporated. 
Here,  it  is  not  a  man  addressing  his  exhortations  to  a  fellow-creature  ; 
it  is  the  Father  of  our  spirits,  the  Judge  of  the  universe,  speaking  from 
heaven,  and  grappling  with  the  conscience  of  the  moral  and  account- 
able being  which  he  has  formed.  Let  this  persuasion  be  really  and 
deeply  felt,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  is  "  quick  and  powerful,  sharper 
than  a  two-edged  sword."  There  is  no  room  for  evasion,  no  pretext 
for  [inattention,]  and  no  possibility  of  escape,  except  [by]  immediate 
compliance  and  submission. 


ADDRESS 

IN    BEHALF  OF  THE 

BAPTIST  ACADEMICAL  INSTITUTION 

AT  STEPNEY. 

[Written  in  1811  or  1812.] 


In  calling  the  attention  of  the  public  to  a  new  seminary,  intended  to 
be  established  near  London,  for  the  education  of  candidates  for  the 
Christian  ministry,  we  are  desirous  of  presenting  a  short  account  of 
the  motives  by  which  we  are  actuated,  and  the  objects  we  have  in  view. 

We  beg  leave  to  premise,  that  nothing  is  further  from  our  intention 
than  to  interfere  with  the  respectable  seminaries  already  subsisting, 
from  which  the  church  of  Christ  has  derived  essential  benefit.  We 
congratulate  the  public  on  their  institution,  rejoice  in  their  prosperity, 
and  feel  a  cordial  concurrence  with  the  views  of  their  generous  patrons 
and  supporters.  We  are  persuaded,  however,  that  the  ground  is  not 
yet  so  fully  occupied  as  to  leave  no  room  for  a  further  extension  of 
the  means  of  instruction  to  students  in  theology ;  and  that,  among  the 
churches  of  the  Baptist  denomination  at  least,  a  difficulty  is  frequently 
experienced  in  procuring  young  men  possessed  of  those  qualifications 
which  the  state  of  society  renders  desirable.  Having  been  supplied,  by 
the  noble  munificence  of  a  worthy  individual,  with  a  house  and  premises 
at  Stepney  well  fitted  for  an  academy,  we  are  desirous  of  realizing 
the  liberal  intentions  of  the  donor,  by  carrying  into  execution  the  plan 
of  public  utility  he  has  meditated. 

At  this  period,  no  apology  can  be  necessary  for  attempting  to  assist 
young  men  designed  for  the  ministry  in  the  acquisition  of  such  branches 
of  knowledge  as  may  qualify  them  more  completely  for  the  successful 
discharge  of  that  sacred  function ;  since,  whatever  prejudices  unfa- 
vourable to  learning  may  have  formerly  prevailed  in  serious  minds, 
they  appear  to  have  subsided,  and  Christians  in  general  admit  the 
propriety  of  enlisting  literature  in  the  service  of  religion.  From  the 
recent  multiplication  of  theological  seminaries  among  Protestant  dis- 
senters, such  an  inference  may  be  fairly  deduced.  While  we  assert 
the  absolute  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures  for  every  saving  purpose,  it 
is  impossible  to  deny  the  usefulness  of  the  knowledge  derived  from 
books,  in  uufolding  many  of  its  obscurities,  explaining  many  of  its 


ADDRESS,  ETC.  441 

allusions,  and  producing  more  fully  to  the  view  the  inestimable  treasure 
it  contains.  The  primary  truths  of  revelation,  it  is  acknowledged, 
offer  themselves  at  first  view  in  the  sacred  volume ;  but  there  are 
latent  riches  and  gems  of  inestimable  value,  which  can  be  brought  to 
light  only  by  a  deeper  and  more  laborious  research.  There  are  num- 
berless exquisite  harmonies  and  retired  beauties  in  the  scheme  of 
revelation,  which  are  rarely  discovered  without  the  union  of  great 
industry  with  cultivated  talent.  A  collection  of  writings,  composed  on 
various  occasions,  and  at  remote  intervals  of  time,  including  detached 
portions  of  history  the  most  ancient,  and  of  poetiy  awfully  sublime, 
but  often  obscure, — a  book  containing  continual  allusions  to  manners 
unknown  in  this  part  of  the  world,  and  to  institutions  which  have  long 
ceased  to  exist, — must  demand  all  the  aid  that  ingenuity  and  learning 
can  bring  towards  its  elucidation. 

The  light  of  revelation,  it  should  be  remembered,  is  not  opposite  to 
the  light  of  reason ;  the  former  presupposes  the  latter ;  they  are  both 
emanations  from  the  same  source ;  and  the  discoveries  of  the  Bible, 
however  supernatural,  are  addressed  to  the  understanding,  the  only 
medium  of  information,  whether  human  or  divine.  Revealed  religion 
is  not  a  cloud  which  overshadows  reason  ;  it  is  a  superior  illumination 
designed  to  perfect  it  exercise  and  supply  its  deficiencies.  Since 
truth  is  always  consistent  with  itself,  it  can  never  suffer  from  the  most 
enlarged  exertion  of  the  intellectual  powers,  provided  those  powers  be 
regulated  by  a  spirit  of  dutiful  submission  to  the  oracles  of  God.  The 
evidences  of  Christianity  challenge  the  most  rigid  examination ;  the 
more  accurate  and  extensive  the  inquiry,  the  more  convincing  will  they 
appear.  Unexpected  coincidences  between  inspired  history  and  the 
most  undisputed  remains  of  antiquity  will  present  themselves,  and 
striking  analogies  be  perceived  between  the  course  of  Providence  and 
the  supreme  economy  of  grace.  The  gradual  development  of  the  plan 
of  revelation,  together  with  the  dependence  of  its  several  parts  on  each 
other,  and  the  perfect  consistency  of  the  whole,  will  employ  and  reward 
the  deepest  investigation.  In  proof  of  the  assistance  religion  may 
derive  from  learning,  rightly  directed,  we  appeal  to  the  writings  of  an 
Usher,  a  Newton,  and  a  Bryant ;  to  the  ancient  apologists  of  Chris- 
tianity, who  by  means  of  it  unmasked  the  deformities  of  polytheism ; 
to  the  Reformers,  whom  it  taught  to  remove  the  sacred  volume  from  the 
dust  and  obscurity  of  cloisters,  and  exhibit  it  in  the  dialects  of  Europe, 
and  to  the  victorious  impugners  of  infidelity  in  modern  times.  Such 
are  the  spoils  which  sanctified  learning  has  won  from  superstition  and 
impiety,  the  common  enemies  of  God  and  man.  Nor  must  we  forget 
to  notice,  among  the  most  precious  fruits  of  cultivated  reason,  that  con- 
sciousness of  its  own  deficiencies,  and  sense  of  its  own  weakness, 
which  prompts  it  to  bow  to  the  authority  of  revelation,  and  depose  its 
honours  at  the  cross ;  since  its  incapacity  to  solve  the  most  important 
questions,  and  to  satisfy  the  most  distressing  doubts,  will  be  felt  with 
the  truest  conviction,  and  attested  with  the  best  grace,  by  such  as  have 
made  the  largest  essay  of  its  powers. 

An  unconverted  ministry  we  look  upon  as  the  greatest  calamity  that 


442  ADDRESS  IN  BEHALF  OF  THE 

can  befall  the  church ;  nor  would  we  be  supposed  to  insinuate  by  the 
preceding  observations  that  education  can  ever  be  a  proper  substitute 
for  native  talent,  much  less  for  real  piety :  all  we  mean  to  assert  is, 
that  the  union  of  both  will  much  enlarge  the  capacity  of  doing  good. 
Without  descending  to  particulars,  we  must  be  allowed  to  remark,  for 
example,  that  the  art  of  arranging  ideas  in  their  proper  order,  and  of 
investigating  the  nature  of  different  sorts  of  evidence,  as  well  as  an 
acquaintance  with  the  fundamental  rules  of  composition  and  rhetoric, 
are  of  essential  service  to  a  public  speaker. 

The  existing  state  of  society  supplies  additional  reasons  for  extending 
the  advantages  of  academical  education.  If  former  periods  have  given 
birth  to  more  renowned  scholars,  none  ever  produced  so  many  men 
of  reading  and  reflection  as  the  present ;  never  was  there  a  time  when 
books  were  so  multiplied,  knowledge  so  diffused, — and  when,  conse- 
quently, the  exercise  of  cultivated  talents  in  all  departments  was  in 
such  demand.  When  the  general  level  of  mental  improvement  is  so 
much  raised,  it  becomes  necessary  for  the  teachers  of  religion  to  pos- 
sess their  full  share  of  these  advantages,  if  they  would  secure  from 
neglect  the  exercise  of  a  function  the  most  important  to  the  interests 
of  mankind.  If  in  the  days  of  inspiration  there  were  schools  of  the 
prophets,  and  miraculous  infusions  of  wisdom  did  not  supersede  human 
means  of  instruction,  much  less  are  they  to  be  neglected  in  the  present 
times,  when  no  such  communications  are  expected.  To  this  we  must 
add,  that  perverted  literature  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  weapons  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemies  of  divine  truth,  who  leave  no  effort  untried 
to  recommend  their  cause  by  the  lustre  of  superior  acquisitions,  and  to 
form  in  the  public  mind  the  dangerous  association  between  irreligion 
and  talents,  weakness  and  piety. 

In  insisting  so  strongly  on  the  advantages  of  a  regular  education,  we 
mean  no  disrespect  to  those  excellent  persons  who  have  exercised  their 
ministry,  much  to  the  benefit  of  the  church,  without  those  advantages  ; 
many  of  whom  are  men  of  vigorous  minds,  who  have  surmounted  great 
obstacles  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge ;  and  others  by  their  piety  and 
good  sense  well  fitted  for  the  stations  which  they  occupy.  We  trust 
that  such  ministers  will  always  be  highly  esteemed  in  our  churches : 
there  are  situations,  it  is  probable,  which  they  are  better  qualified  to  fill 
than  persons  of  a  higher  education.  To  the  improvement  of  the  higher 
classes,  however,  it  will  scarcely  be  denied,  men  of  the  latter  character 
are  best  suited ;  and  as  their  salvation  is  not  in  itself  less  important 
than  that  of  the  lower  orders,  so  their  superior  weight  in  society 
attaches  to  their  character  and  conduct  peculiar  consideration.  It  is 
also  manifest,  from  the  examples  of  a  Brainerd,  an  Elliot,  and  a 
Schwartz,  that  where  piety  in  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  is  once  se- 
cured, a  course  of  academical  studies  is  no  impediment  to  the  growth 
and  development  of  qualities  the  most  conducive  to  success, — deep 
humility,  eminent  spirituality,  unshaken  perseverance,  and  patient  self- 
denial. 

With  respect  to  the  principles  we  wish  to  see  prevail  in  our  future 
seminary,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  observe,  they  are  in  general  the  prin. 


BAPTIST  ACADEMICAL  INSTITUTION.  443 

ciples  of  the  Reformation ;  and  were  we  to  descend  to  a  more  minute 
specification  we  should  add,  they  are  the  principles  which  distinguish 
the  body  of  Christians  denominated  Particular  or  Calvinistic  Baptists. 
While  we  feel  a  cordial  esteem  for  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  sincerity, — disclaiming  all  pretensions  to  that  vaunted  liberality 
which  masks  an  indiiference  to  revealed  truth,  we  feel  no  hesitation  in 
declaring,  that  nothing  would  give  us  more  concern  than  to  see  the 
seminary  we  have  in  contemplation  become  the  organ  of  infidel  or 
heretical  pravity. 

We  conceive  some  advantages  may  accrue  from  fixing  the  proposed 
seminary  in  the  vicinity  of  the  metropolis.  It  may  be  hoped  that  its 
pecuniary  resources  will  be  benefited  by  being  placed  in  the  centre  of 
commercial  opulence  ;  that  a  residence  of  a  few  years  near  the  capital 
of  a  great  empire  may  give  an  expansion  to  the  youthful  mind ;  and 
that  the  means  which  it  affords  of  obtaining  the  assistance  of  teachers 
in  various  departments  of  science,  nowhere  else  to  be  found,  may  im- 
prove the  taste  and  direct  the  exertions  of  the  students. 

We  conclude  with  recommending  our  undertaking  to  the  patronage 
of  the  public  and  to  the  blessing  of  God,  and  with  expressing  our  hope, 
that  through  the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  in  a  copious  effusion  on 
the  future  patrons,  tutors,  and  students  of  this  seminary,  however  small 
in  its  beginning,  it  will  become  respectable  for  learning  and  piety,  be  a 
nursery  of  faithful  and  able  ministers,  and  a  blessing  to  the  church  of 
Christ. 


LETTER 


TO  THE  COMMITTEE  OF 


THE  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY. 


To  the  Committee  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  convened  in  LoU' 
don  on  the  \5th  instant. 

Bnstol,  March  12,  1827. 
Gentlemen, 

It  is  with  much  diffidence  that  I  presume  to  address  you  on  the 
present  occasion,  nor  am  I  certain  whether  I  am  perfectly  in  order  in 
so  doing  ;  but  conceiving  this  to  be  a  crisis  in  the  mission,  and  not  being- 
able  to  be  present  at  the  meeting,  I  could  not  satisfy  myself  without 
communicating  the  result  of  my  reflections  on  the  important  business 
which  has  called  you  together. 

Dr.  Marshman,  it  seems,  as  the  representative  of  the  brethren  at 
Serampore,  has  instituted  a  demand  of  one-sixth  of  all  the  money  col- 
lected or  subscribed  towards  the  society,  to  be  paid  annually  in  aid  of 
the  missionary  operations  going  on  there.  It  must  strike  every  one  as 
strange  that  this  demand  should  almost  immediately  follow  a  preceding 
one  which  was  acceded  to,  which  he  then  professed  to  consider  as 
perfectly  satisfactory,  and  as  putting  a  final  termination  to  all  dispute 
or  discussion  on  the  subject  of  pecuniary  claims — that  notwithstanding 
this,  he  should  now  bring  forward  a  fresh  requisition  of  one-sixth  of 
the  same  amount,  accompanied,  as  I  am  informed,  by  an  intimation 
that  it  is  possible  this  may  not  be  his  ultimatum.  This  proceeding  has 
all  the  appearance  of  a  tentative  process,  designed  to  ascertain  how 
far  our  anxiety  to  avoid  a  breach  will  prompt  us  to  submit  to  his  en- 
croachments. What  security  have  we  against  future  requisitions  if  we 
yield  to  the  present  ?  What  reason  to  suppose  our  ready  compliance 
in  this  instance  will  not  encourage  him  to  embrace  an  early  oppor- 
tunity of  making  further  demands  ?  It  has  all  the  appearance  of  the 
commencement  of  a  series  of  unfounded  pretensions  and  endless 
exactions. 

That  a  set  of  men,  in  the  character  of  missionaries,  after  disclaiming 
the  authority  of  the  society  which  sent  them  out,  and  asserting  an  entire 
independence — after  claiming  an  absolute  control  (whether  rightfully 
or  not)  over  a  large  property  which  that  society  had  always  considered 


LETTER  TO  THE  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.       445 

as  its  own,  should  demand  an  annual  payment  from  those  from  whom 
they  had  severed  themselves,  and  thus  attempt  to  make  their  constitu- 
ents their  tributaries,  is  a  proceeding  scarcely  paralleled  in  the  history 
of  human  affairs. 

I  am  utterly  at  a  loss  to  understand  on  what  principles  the  Seram- 
pore  brethren,  in  the  position  in  which  they  have  placed  themselves, 
have  any  claim  whatever  on  the  funds  of  the  society  whose  authority 
they  have  renounced,  after  appropriating  to  themselves  the  manage- 
ment of  an  extensive  revenue,  in  the  disposal  of  which  they  will  not 
brook  the  smallest  interference  or  control.  Without  reverting  to  former 
grounds  of  controversy,  it  will  surely  be  admitted  that  the  independ- 
ence we  have,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  conceded  to  them  is  reciprocal — 
that  our  right  to  it  is  not  less  than  theirs — and  that  we  are  consequently 
at  liberty  to  dispose  of  our  income  in  the  way  which  we  conceive 
most  conducive  to  the  purposes  of  our  institution. 

It  may  be  very  proper,  under  certain  circumstances,  for  us  to  aid  the 
brethren  at  Serampore  by  occasional  donations,  regulated  by  the  state 
of  our  funds,  and  the  attention  necessary  to  other  objects ;  but  this  is 
essentially  different  from  absolutely  engaging  to  pay  an  annual  sum, 
which  would,  in  my  humble  opinion,  be  equally  inconsistent  with  the 
interests  and  the  honour  of  this  society.  As  our  brethren  of  Serampore 
have  chiefly  exerted  themselves  in  translations,  and  are  confessedly  in 
possession  of  great  pecuniary  resources,  there  seems  no  imperious 
necessity  for  regularly  diverting  those  funds  to  their  aid  which  are 
unequal  to  the  demand  which  Bengal  alone  would  create,  were  our 
mission  (a  most  desirable  event)  concentrated  within  that  province. 
Calcutta,  to  say  nothing  of  other  stations,  cries  aloud  for  more  labour- 
ers, but  cries  in  vain. 

It  has  been  said  that  we  are  indebted  for  our  success  to  the  celebrity 
attached  to  the  names  of  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward ;  and  that  but 
for  the  unbounded  confidence  of  the  religious  public  in  these  men,  our 
funds  would  never  have  been  realized.  Supposing  this  to  be  the  case,- 
to  take  advantage  of  such  a  circumstance  in  order  to  bring  the  society 
into  subjection,  would  not  be  to  make  a  very  generous  use  of  their 
influence.  But  I  believe  it  is  a  mistake ;  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that 
the  Baptist  mission,  like  other  kindred  institutions,  rests  on  the  basis- 
of  its  own  merits,  and  that  it  will  not  fail  to  secure  the  confidence  of 
the  public,  in  proportion  to  the  purity  of  its  motives,  the  wisdom  of  its 
counsels,  and  the  utility  of  its  objects.  If  it  cannot  sustain  the  ordeal 
of  public  opinion  on  these  principles,  let  it  sink,  rather  than  owe  its 
support  to  the  illusion  of  a  name. 

To  contemplate  the  possibility  of  being  compelled  to  an  open  rup- 
ture with  our  brethren  of  Serampore  is  unquestionably  painful ;  it  is 
their  knowledge  alone  of  our  extreme  reluctance  to  hazard  that  conse- 
quence which  imboldens  them  to  advance  these  exorbitant  claims.  If 
we  can  avoid  it  by  a  consistent  and  dignified  mode  of  procedure,  let  it 
be  avoided ;  but  if  peace  can  only  be  purchased  by  an  ignominious 
surrender  of  our  rights  as  a  society, — by  a  tame  submission  to  unrea- 
sonable demands, — and  by  subjecting  it  to  a  sort  of  feudal  dependence, 


446       LETTER  TO  THE  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY. 

in  all  time  to  come,  on  persons  we  know  not  whom,  whose  characters 
M'e  cannot  ascertain,  and  whose  actions  we  cannot  control, — the  pur- 
chase is,  in  my  humble  opinion,  too  dear.  The  treatment  of  the  Seram- 
pore  brethren  has  not  been  such  that  we  need  shrink  from  its  most 
ample  exposure  to  the  public ;  nor  have  we  any  other  censure  to  fear 
on  that  head,  except  it  be  for  lavishing  upon  them  a  too  overweening 
confidence.  We  have  no  such  secrets  to  conceal,  that  it  should  cost 
us  a  large  annual  payment  to  secure  their  suppression. 

Of  the  three  brethren  with  whom  we  were  lately  in  treaty,  one  is 
already  gone  into  eternity,  and  the  remaining  two  are  advancing  to  that 
period  of  life  which  ought  to  make  us  pause  ere  we  enter  into  engage- 
ments which  will  give  to  persons  of  whom  we  know  little  or  nothing  a 
permanent  right  of  interference  with  our  funds. 

The  crisis  is  most  solemn  ;  and  a  hasty  compliance  with  the  present 
requisition  may,  when  it  is  too  late,  make  matter  for  bitter  and  unavail- 
ing repentance.  That  you  may  be  indulged  on  this,  and  on  every  other 
occasion,  with  "  the  wisdom  which  is  from  above,"  is  the  sincere 
prayer  of,  Gentlemen, 

Your  obedient  humble  servant, 

ROBERT  HALL. 


PREFACE 

TO 

HALL'S  HELP  TO  ZION'S  TRAVELLERS. 

IWritten  in  1814.] 


An  aversion  to  religious  controversy  may  arise  from  one  of  two 
causes,  in  their  nature  the  most  opposite, — a  contempt  of  religion  itself, 
or  a  high  degree  of  devotional  feeling.  They  who  consider  the  objects 
of  religion  as  visionary  and  uncertain,  or  who,  rejecting  revelation,  feel 
their  inability  to  find  a  place  where  they  may  fix  their  footing,  will 
naturally  feel  an  emotion  of  contempt  for  theological  contests,  similar 
to  that  which  we  should  experience  towards  men  who  were  fighting  for 
possessions  in  the  air. 

There  are  not  a  few  who  would  engage  with  the  utmost  seriousness 
and  ardour  in  a  dispute  on  the  nature  and  effects  of  paper  currency, 
who  would  be  ashamed  of  being  suspected  of  directing  their  attention 
for  a  moment  to  the  most  weighty  question  in  theology.  Attentive  to 
all  the  aspects  and  combinations  of  the  material  and  of  the  political 
world,  they  are  accustomed  to  regard  religion  as  a  sort  of  Utopia,  a 
land  of  shadow  and  of  fiction,  where,  wrapt  in  pleasing  vision,  credulity 
reposes  on  the  lap  of  imposture.  Persons  of  this  sort  are  so  com- 
pletely overcome  by  the  enchantments  of  the  present  state,  so  entirely 
devoted  to  the  wisdom  which  St.  James  denominates  earthly  and  sen- 
sual, that  they  are  incapable  of  being  impressed  with  a  conviction  of 
the  possibility  of  a  higher  order  of  objects,  or  a  more  elevated  and 
refined  condition  of  being,  than  that  with  which  they  are  conversant ; 
and  though  they  may  possess  a  subtle  and  penetrating  genius,  they  are 
not  less  disqualified  for  religious  inquiries  than  an  idiot  or  an  infant. 
"  They  mind  earthly  things." 

How  far  the  indisposition  to  religious  controversy  which  prevails  at 
present  may  be  justly  ascribed  to  the  Sadducean  temper,  I  shall  not 
pretend  to  determine.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  in  some  this  indis- 
position proceeds  from  a  better  cause.  While  the  former  class  of  per- 
sons think  religion  not  worth  disputing  about,  there  are  others  who 
conceive  it  to  be  a  subject  too  sacred  for  dispute.  They  wish  to  con- 
fine it  to  silent  meditation,  to  sweeten  solitude,  to  inspire  devotion,  to 
guide  the  practice  and  purify  the  heart,  and  never  to  appear  in  public 


448  PREFACE  TO 

but  in  the  character  of  the  authentic  interpreter  of  the  will  of  Heaven, 
'rhey  conceive  it  degraded  when  it  is  brought  forward  to  combat  on  the 
arena.  We  are  fully  convinced  that  a  disputatious  humour  is  unfa- 
vourable to  piety,  and  that  controversies  in  religion  have  often  been 
unnecessarily  multiplied  and  extended  ;  but  how  they  can  be  dispensed 
with  altogether  we  are  at  a  loss  to  discover,  until  some  other  method 
is  discovered  of  confuting  error  than  sound  and  solid  argument.  As 
we  no  longer  live  in  times  (God  be  thanked !)  when  coercion  can  be 
employed,  or  when  any  individual  or  any  body  of  men  is  invested  with 
that  authority  which  could  silence  disputes  by  an  oracular  decision, 
there  appears  no  possibility  of  maintaining  the  interests  of  truth,  with- 
out having  recourse  to  temperate  and  candid  controversy.  Perhaps  the 
sober  use  of  this  weapon  may  not  be  without  its  advantages  even  at  the 
present  season.  Prone  as  we  are  to  extremes,  may  there  not  be  some 
reason  to  apprehend  we  have  passed  from  that  propensity  to  magnify 
every  difference  subsisting  among  Christians  to  a  neglect  of  just  dis- 
crimination ;  to  a  habit  of  contemplating  the  Christian  system  as  one  in 
which  there  is  little  or  nothing  that  remains  to  be  explored  1  Let  us 
cultivate  the  most  cordial  esteem  for  all  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  sincerity.  Let  us  anxiously  guard  against  that  asperity  and  con- 
tempt which  have  too  often  mingled  with  theological  debates  ;  but  let 
us  aim  at  the  same  time  to  acquire  and  retain  the  most  accurate  con- 
ceptions of  religious  truth.  Every  improvement  in  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  and  the  mysteries  of  his  gospel  will  abundantly  compensate  for 
the  labour  and  attention  necessary  to  its  attainment. 

However  unhappily  controversies  have  too  often  been  conducted,  the 
assistance  they  have  afforded  in  the  discovery  of  truth  is  not  light  or 
inconsiderable.  Not  to  mention  the  Reformation,  which  was  princi- 
pally effected  by  controversy,  how  many  truths  have  by  this  means 
been  set  in  a  clearer  view !  and  while  the  unhappy  passions  it  has 
awakened  have  subsided,  the  light  struck  out  in  the  collision  has  been 
retained  and  perpetuated. 

As  the  physical  powers  are  scarcely  ever  exerted  to  their  utmost 
extent  but  in  the  ardour  of  combat,  so  intellectual  acumen  has  been 
displayed  to  the  most  advantage  and  to  the  most  effect  in  the  contests 
of  argument.  The  mind  of  a  controversialist,  warmed  and  agitated,  is 
turned  to  all  quarters,  and  leaves  none  of  its  resources  unemployed  in 
the  invention  of  arguments,  tries  every  weapon,  and  explores  the  hidden 
recesses  of  a  subject  with  an  intense  vigilance,  and  an  ardour  which  it 
is  next  to  impossible  in  a  calmer  state  of  mind  to  command.  Disin- 
genuous arts  are  often  resorted  to,  personalities  are  mingled,  and  much 
irritative  matter  is  introduced ;  but  it  is  the  business  of  the  attentive 
observer  to  separate  these  from  the  question  at  issue,  and  to  form 
an  impartial  judgment  of  the  whole.  In  a  word,  it  may  be  truly  affirmed 
that  the  evils  of  controversy  are  transient,  the  good  it  produces  is 
permanent. 

These  observations  I  beg  leave  to  submit  to  the  reader  as  an 
apology  for  the  republication  of  a  treatise  which  is  professedly  con- 
troversial.    Coinciding  with  the  venerable  author  in  the  general  aim 


HALL'S  HELP  TO  ZION'S  TRAVELLERS.  449 

and  drift  of  the  following  sheets,  I  am  far  from  pledging  myself  to  the 
approbation  and  support  of  every  position  contained  in  them ;  nor  would 
I  be  understood  to  attach  all  the  importance  to  some  of  the  points  of 
discussion  which  they  appear  in  his  estimation  to  have  possessed. 

If  there  be  any  impression  in  the  following  treatise  which  implies 
that  the  questions  at  issue  between  the  Calvinists  and  Arminians  are 
of  the  nature  of  fu7idamentals  (of  which,  however,  I  am  not  aware), 
I  beg  leave,  as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  to  express  my  explicit 
dissent ;  being  fully  satisfied  that  upon  either  system  the  foundations 
of  human  hope  remain  unshaken,  and  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
contrariety  of  views  entertained  on  these  subjects  which  ought  to 
obstruct  the  most  cordial  affection  and  harmony  among  Christians. 

Having  no  pecuniary  interest  in  this  work,  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed 
with  more  freedom  to  communicate  my  opinion  of  its  merit,  I  am 
much  mistaken  if  the  candid  reader  will  not  perceive  in  the  author  an 
impartial  love  of  truth,  together  with  a  degree  of  ingenuity  and  acuteness 
in  its  illustration  and  defence  not  always  to  be  met  with  in  theological 
discussions. 

The  sentiments  of  my  honoured  father  were  decidedly  Calvinistic. 
His  object,  however,  in  the  following  treatise  was  not  so  much  to 
recommend  that  system  in  general  as  to  disengage  it  from  certain 
excrescences,  which  he  considered  as  weakening  its  evidence  and 
impairing  its  beauty.  On  reviewing  his  religious  tenets  during  the 
latter  years  of  his  life,  and  impartially  comparing  them  with  the 
Scriptures,  he  was  led  to  discard  some  opinions  which  he  had  formerly 
embraced,  and  which  he  afterward  came  to  consider  as  havhig  a 
pernicious  tendency. 

From  the  moral  impotenr-e  which  tlie  oracles  of  truth  ascribe  to  man 
in  his  fallen  state,  a  certain  class  of  divines  were  induced  to  divide 
moral  and  religious  duties  into  two  classes,  natural  and  spiritual ;  com- 
prehending under  the  latter  those  which  require  spiritual  or  supernatural 
assistance  to  tlieir  performance,  and  under  the  former  those  which  de- 
mand no  such  assistance.  Agreeable  to  this  distinction,  they  conceived  it 
to  be  the  duty  of  all  men  to  abstain  from  the  outward  acts  of  sin,  to  read 
the  Scriptures,  to  frequent  the  worstiip  of  God,  and  to  attend  with  serious 
assiduity  to  the  means  of  grace ;  but  they  supposed  that  repentance,  faith 
in  Christ,  and  the  exercise  of  genuine  internal  devotion  were  obligatory 
only  to  the  regenerate.  Hence  their  ministry  consisted  almost  entirely 
of  an  exhibition  of  the  peculiar  mysteries  of  the  gospel,  with  few  or  no 
addresses  to  the  unconverted.  They  conceived  themselves  not  war- 
ranted to  urge  them  to  repent  and  believe  the  gospel, — those  being 
the  spiritual  duties,  from  whose  ouligation  they  were  released  by  the 
inability  contracted  by  the  fall. 

These  conclusions  were  evidently  founded  upon  two  assumptions : 
first,  that  the  impotence  which  the  Scriptures  ascribe  to  the  unre- 
generate  is  free  from  blame,  so  as  to  excuse  them  from  all  the  duties 
to  which  it  extends.  In  opposition  to  this,  the  author  of  the  following 
treatise  has  proved,  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner,  that  the  inability 
under  which  the  unconverted  labour  is  ahogether  of  a  moral  nature, 

Vol.  II.— F  f 


450  PREFACE  TO 

consisting  of  the  cori-uption  of  the  will,  or  an  aversion  to  things  of  a 
spiritual  and  divine  nature  that  is  in  itself  criminal ;  and  that,  so  far 
from  affording  an  excuse  for  what  would  otherwise  be  a  duty,  it  stamps 
with  its  own  character  all  its  issues  and  productions. 

In  considering  the  moral  character  of  an  action,  we  are  naturally 
led  to  inquire  into  its  motive ;  and  according  as  that  is  criminal,  laud- 
able, or  indifferent,  to  characterize  the  action  whence  it  proceeds. 
The  motive,  however,  appears  no  otherwise  entitled  to  commendation 
than  as  it  indicates  the  disposition  of  the  agent ;  so  that,  in  analyzing 
the  elements  of  moral  character,  we  can  ascend  no  higher  than^  to  the 
consideration  of  the  disposition,  or  the  state  of  the  will  and  of  the 
affections,  as  constituting  the  essence  of  that  portion  of  virtue  or  of 
vice  which  we  respectively  ascribe  to  it.  To  proceed  further  will  only 
involve  us  in  a  circle ;  since  to  whatever  we  might  trace  the  disposition 
in  question,  should  we  be  induced,  for  example,  to  ascribe  it  to  the 
free  exercise  of  the  will,  that  exercise  would  fall  under  the  same 
predicament,  and  be  considered  either  as  virtuous  or  vicious,  according 
to  the  disposition  whence  it  proceeds.  When  the  Scriptures  have 
placed  the  inability  of  mankind  to  yield  holy  and  acceptable  obedience 
in  an  evil  disposition,  or  in  blindness  or  hardness  of  heart,  they  have 
conducted  us  to  the  ultimate  point  on  this  subject,  and  have  established 
the  doctrine  of  human  criminality  upon  a  basis  which  cannot  be  shaken 
or  disturbed  without  confounding  the  first  principles  of  moral  dis- 
crimination. Though  this  is  manifest,  this  impotence  is  entirely  of  a 
moral  nature,  totally  distinct  from  the  want  of  natural  faculties.  It 
is  equally  evident,  that  to  whatever  extent  it  exists,  while  it  actually 
subsists,  it  is  as  effectual  an  impediment  to  the  performaace  of  holy 
actions  as  any  physical  privation  whatover:  and  on  that  account,  and 
on  that  alone,  may  without  absurdity  be  styled  an  inahiUty.  This 
important  distinction  was  not  wholly  unknown  to  our  earlier  divines, 
though  they  neglected  to  avail  themselves  of  it  as  fully  as  they  ought : 
it  is  clearly  stated  by  the  great  Mr.  Howe,  in  his  Blessedness  of  the 
Righteous,  as  well  as  adverted  to  by  Mr.  Baxter  in  several  of  his 
practical  works.  But  the  earliest  regular  treatise  on  this  subject  it 
has  been  my  lot  to  meet  with  was  the  production  of  Mr.  Truman,  an 
eminent  nonconformist  divine.  In  his  Dissertation  on  Moral  Impotence, 
as  he  styles  it,  he  has  anticipated  the  most  important  arguments  of 
succeeding  writers,  and  has  evinced  throughout  a  most  masterly 
acquaintance  with  his  subject.  This  work  is  mentioned  in  terms 
of  high  respect  by  Nelson,  in  his  Life  of  Bishop  Bull,  who  remarks 
that  his  thoughts  were  original,  and  that  he  had  hit  upon  a  method  of 
defending  Calvinism,  against  the  objections  of  Bull  and  others,  peculiar 
to  himself.  His  claim  to  perfect  originality,  however,  was  not  so 
well-founded  as  Nelson  supposed.  Since  his  time  the  subject  has  been 
fully  discussed  by  the  celebrated  Jonathan  Edwards,  in  his  Treatise 
on  the  Will,  and  the  distinction  defended  with  all  the  depth  and  precision 
peculiar  to  that  amazing  genius. 

Another  principle  assumed  as  a  basis  by  the  high  Calvinists  is,  that 
the  same  things  cannot  be  the  duty  of  man  and  the  gift  of  God ;  or,  in 


HALL'S  HELP  TO  ZION'S  TRAVELLERS.  451 

other  words,  that  what  is  matter  of  promise  can  on  no  occasion  be 
the  matter  of  obligation.  The  Scriptures  frequently  affirm  faith  and 
repentance  to  be  the  gift  of  God ;  hence  it  is  concluded  that  they 
cannot  be  obligatory  on  the  unregenerate, — a  conclusion  diametrically 
opposed  to  innumerable  passages  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
which  insist  in  the  most  peremptory  style  on  true  conversion  and  a  lively 
faith  as  the  most  essential  duties,  which  other  passages  are  equally 
express  in  exhibiting  as  matter  of  promise.  "A  new  heart  will  I  give 
them,"  says  the  Lord,  by  Ezekicl,  "  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within 
them,  and  I  will  take  away  the  heart  of  stone,  and  give  them  a  heart 
of  flesh."  The  same  prophet  cries,  "  Make  yourselves  a  new  heart ; 
for  why  will  ye  die,  ye  house  of  Israel  ?" — in  exact  accordance  with 
the  language  of  St.  James,  "  Cleanse  your  hands,  ye  sinners,  and 
purify  your  hearts,  ye  double-minded."  The  burthen  of  our  Saviour's 
ministry,  as  well  as  that  of  his  forerunner,  was,  "Repent,  for  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand ;"  while  St.  Peter,  who  perfectly  knew  the 
genius  of  Christianity,  affirms  that  Christ  is  "  exalted,  to  give  repentance 
and  the  remission  of  sins."  "  Circumcise  your  hearts,"  said  Moses, 
"  and  be  no  longer  stiff'-necked."  The  same  Moses  had  been  previously 
commissioned  to  declare,  "The  Lord  thy  God  will  circumcise  thy 
heart,  and  the  heart  of  thy  seed."  Now  the  circumcision  of  the  heart, 
we  are  taught  by  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  to  regard  as 
the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  truly  regenerate — of  him  "  who  is  a 
Jew  inwardly,  whose  praise  is  not  of  man,  but  of  God."  Whoever 
impartially  weighs  the  import  of  these  scriptures  must  be  convinced 
that  the  same  things  are  in  fact  matter  of  command  and  the  subject  of 
promise,  and  must  consequently  be  prepared  to  acquiesce  in  the 
decision  of  Infinite  Wisdom  on  this  subject,  however  much  he  may  be 
at  a  loss  to  explain  or  account  for  it.  The  consistency  of  the  promises 
and  of  the  commands  in  question  arises  from  the  matter  of  each  being 
of  a  moral  nature.  If  we  will  allow  ourselves  to  reflect,  we  shall 
perceive  that  the  will,  and  the  will  only,  is  the  proper  object  of  com- 
mand, and  that  an  agent  is  no  otherwise  accountable,  or  susceptible 
of  moral  government,  than  as  he  is  the  subject  of  voluntary  powers : 
we  shall  also  perceive  that  the  disordered  state  of  the  will,  or  the 
radical  indisposition  of  an  agent  to  comply  with  legitimate  commands, 
which  is  the  same  thing,  by  no  means  exempts  him  from  their  obliga- 
tion, nor  tends  in  the  least  degree  to  render  the  addressing  such 
commands  to  him  absurd  or  improper.  That  they  will  not  be  complied 
with  while  that  disordered  state  subsists  is  true :  but  legitimate  com- 
mands, enforced  by  proper  sanctions,  are  among  the  strongest  motives  ; 
that  is,  they  tend  in  their  own  nature  to  incline  the  will,  and  therefore  they 
cannot  be  withheld  without  virtually  reUnquishing  the  claim  of  authority 
and  dominion.  This  may  suffice  to  evince  the  propriety  of  issuing 
commands,  notwithstandmg  the  known  and  radical  indisposition  to 
comply ;  or,  which  comes  to  the  same  thing,  whatever  be  the  state  of 
the  will. 

With  respect  to  the  other  side  of  the  supposed  contradiction,  what 
can  be  plainer  than  that  the  will,  as  well  as  every  other  faculty  of  the 

Ff  3 


452  PREFACE  TO 

mind,  is  under  Divine  control,  and  that  God  can,  with  infinite  ease,  in 
what  instances  and  in  what  manner  he  please,  so  change  and  modify 
it  as  to  induce  a  prompt  and  cheerful  compliance  with  his  requisition  i 
What  should  prevent  Him,  at  whose  disposal  are  the  hearts  of  the 
mightiest  of  men,  "to  make  his  people  willing  in  the  day  of  his  power?" 

It  is  instructive  as  well  as  amusing  to  trace  the  coincidence  which 
is  often  found  between  systems  which  appear  at  first  view  at  the 
utmost  variance  from  each  other.  The  grosser  Arminians  and  Pela- 
gians contend,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  men  to  repent  and  believe, 
because  all  possess  an  inherent  power  of  so  doing  without  special  and 
Divine  assistance.  The  high  Calvinists,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that 
men  in  a  state  of  unregeneracy  are  under  an  obligation  to  perform 
those  duties,  because  they  are  not  possessed  of  the  requisite  ability. 
Thus  both  concur  in  making  moral  ability  the  measure  of  obligation ; 
a  position  which,  when  the  terms  are  accurately  defined  and  cleared 
of  their  ambiguity,  conducts  us  to  this  very  extraordinary  conclusion, 
that  men  are  obliged  to  just  as  much  of  duty  as  they  are  inclined  to. 
On  these  and  other  points  connected  with  them  the  reader,  if  we  are 
not  mistaken,  will  find  much  solid  instruction  in  the  following  treatise, 
accompanied  with  such  a  constant  attention  to  the  great  end  of  theo- 
logical discussion — -the  promotion  of  practical  piety — as  can  scarcely 
fail  of  affording  high  satisfaction  to  serious  minds.  To  this  treatise, 
and  to  another  on  a  similar  subject  by  my  excellent  and  judicious 
friend  Mr.  Fuller,  the  dissenters  in  general,  and  the  Baptists  in  par- 
ticular, are  under  great  obligation  for  emancipating  them  from  the 
fetters  of  prejudice,  and  giving  free  scopp  to  the  publication  of  the 
gospel.  By  these  means  a  considerable  revolution  has  been  effected 
in  the  sentiments  of  the  denomination  to  which  I  have  the  honour  to 
belong:  the  excrescences  of  Calvinism  have  been  cut  ofF;--the  points 
of  defence  have  been  diminished  in  number  and  better  fortified  ;■ — truth 
has  shone  forth  with  brighter  lustre ; — and  the  ministry  of  the  gospel 
has  been  rendered  more  simple,  more  practical,  and  more  efficacious. 

In  reply  to  such  as  may  object  to  the  metaphysical  subtlety  which 
pervades  some  parts  of  the  following  treatise,  I  would  avail  myself  of 
the  distinction  admirably  illustrated  by  the  author  of  the  Light  of  Nature 
Pursued.*  He  observes,  that  although  metaphysical  reason  rarely, 
if  ever,  conduces  to  the  discovery  of  truth,  it  is  of  great  advantage  in 
the  detection  of  sophistry ;  and  that  the  mist  and  confusion  in  which 
moral  subjects  have  been  involved,  by  crude  and  undigested  metaphy- 
sics, can  only  be  exploded  by  the  temperate  use  of  that  which  is  true 
and  genuine  :  so  that  the  chief  praise  of  metaphysics  is  the  cure  of  its 
own  ills,  the  repair  of  the  mischief  which  itself  has  wrought.  The 
reader  will  observe  that  the  author  employs  metaphysics,  not  to  rear 
the  fabric  of  truth,  which  can  only  be  effected  by  a  profound  deference 
to  inspiration,  but  to  deqiolish  a  rotten  superstructure  which  conceals 
its  beauty.  For  the  want  of  elegance  or  polish,  discernible  in  the 
following  sheets,  it  will  be  sufficient  apology  to  inform  the  reader,  that 
the  author,  destitute  of  the  advantages  of  early  education,  had  no  other 

*  Abraham  Tucker. 


HALL'S  HELP  TO   ZION'S  TRAVELLERS.  453 

resources  to  depend  upon,  in  his  religious  inquiries,  than  what  were 
derived  from  the  vigour  of  his  understanding,  and  his  unbiassed  integrity 
of  heart.  Had  he  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  literary  culture,  he  would 
have  undoubtedly  written  in  a  style  and  manner  more  adapted  to  gain 
the  attention  of  the  superior  classes :  whether  his  reasoning  would 
have  been  more  cogent,  or  his  method  of  handling  his  subject  better 
fitted  for  the  instruction  of  plain  serious  Christians,  for  whose  benefit 
he  principally  laboured,  is  more  questionable. 

Gratitude  and  veneration  compel  me  to  add,  that  with  all  the  im- 
perfections of  the  work,  and  the  disadvantages  under  which  the  author 
of  it  laboured,  I  shall  ever  esteem  it  one  of  the  greatest  favours  an 
indulgent  Providence  has  bestowed  upon  me,  to  have  possessed  such 
a  father,  whom,  in  all  the  essential  features  of  character,  it  will  be 
my  humble  ambition  to  imitate,  though  conscious  it  must  ever  be 

"  Haud  passibus  aequis." 

Robert  Hall. 


PREFACE  TO  JANEWAY'S  LIFE. 

[Written  in  1816.] 


At  the  request  of  a  highly  esteemed  friend,  I  feel  no  hesitation  in 
recommending  the  remarkable  narrative  now  republished,  to  the  serious 
attention  of  the  reader.  It  exhibits  a  life  eminently  formed  on  the 
example  of  Christ,  and  a  death-bed  scene  of  extraordinary  elevation 
and  triumph.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  contemplate  either,  as  they 
are  exhibited  in  the  following  memorial,  without  feeling  an  increasing 
conviction  of  the  reality  and  dignity  of  true  religion.  lam  aware  that 
some  will  object  to  the  strain  of  devout  ecstasy  which  characterizes 
the  sentiments  and  language  of  Mr.  Janeway  in  his  dying  moments ; 
but  I  am  persuaded  they  will  meet  with  nothing,  however  ecstatic  and 
elevated,  but  what  corresponds  to  the  dictates  of  Scripture  and  the 
analogy  of  the  faith.  He  who  recollects  that  the  Scriptures  speak 
of  a  "  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding,  and  a  joy  unspeakable 
and  full  of  glory,"  will  not  be  offended  at  the  lively  expressions  of  those 
contained  in  this  narrative :  he  will  be  more  disposed  to  lament  the 
low  state  of  his  own  religious  feeling  than  to  suspect  the  propriety  of 
sentiments  the  most  rational  and  scriptural,  merely  because  they  rise 
to  a  pitch  that  he  has  never  reached.  The  sacred  oracles  afford  no 
countenance  to  the  supposition  that  devotional  feelings  are  to  be 
condemned  as  visionary  and  enthusiastic,  merely  on  account  of  their 
intenseness  and  elevation  ;  provided  they  be  of  a  right  kind,  and  spring 
from  legitimate  sources,  they  never  teach  us  to  suspect  they  can  be 
carried  too  far.  David  "  danced  before  the  Lord  with  all  his  might ;" 
and  M'hen  he  was  reproached  for  degrading  himself  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people  by  indulging  these  transports,  he  replied,  If  this  be  to  be  vile, 
"  I  will  yet  make  myself  more  vile."  That  the  objects  which  interest 
the  heart  in  religion  are  infinitely  more  durable  and  important  than  all 
others  will  not  be  disputed  :  and  why  should  it  be  deemed  irrational 
to  be  affected  by  them  in  a  degree  somewhat  suitable  to  their  value, 
especially  in  the  near  prospect  of  their  full  and  perfect  possession  ? 
Why  should  it  be  deemed  strange  or  irrational  for  a  dying  saint,  who 
has  spent  his  life  in  the  pursuit  of  immortal  good,  to  feel  an  unspeak- 
able ecstasy  at  finding  he  has  just  touched  the  goal,  finished  his  course, 
and  in  a  few  moments  is  to  be  crowned  with  life  everlasting  ?  While 
he  dwells  on  the  inconceivably  glorious  prospect  before  him,  and  feels 


PREFACE  TO  JANEWAY'S  LIFE.  455 

himself  lost  in  wonder  and  gratitude,  and  almost  oppressed  with  a 
sense  of  his  unutterable  obligations  to  the  love  of  his  Creator  and 
Redeemer,  nothing  can  be  more  natural  and  proper  than  his  sentiments 
and  conduct.  While  the  Scriptures  retain  their  rank  as  the  only  rule 
of  faith  and  practice, — while  there  are  those  who  feel  the  power  of 
true  religion, — such  death-bed  scenes  as  Mr.  Janeway's  will  be  con- 
templated with  veneration  and  delight.  It  affords  no  inconsiderable 
confirmation  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  that  the  most  celebrated  sages 
of  pagan  antiquity,  whose  last  moments  have  been  exhibited  with 
inimitable  propriety  and  beauty,  present  nothing  equal  nor  similar ; 
nothing  of  that  singular  combination  of  humility  and  elevation,  that 
self-renouncing  greatness,  in  which  the  creature  appears  annihilated, 
and  God  all  in  all.  I  am  much  mistaken  if  the  serious  reader  will  not 
find  in  the  closing  scenes  of  Mr.  Janeway's  life  the  most  perfect  form 
of  Christianity :  he  will  find  it,  not,  as  it  is  too  often,  clouded  with 
doubts  and  oppressed  Avith  sorrows ;  he  will  behold  it  ascend  the 
mount,  transfigured,  glorified,  and  encircled  with  the  beams  of  celestial 
majesty. 

Let  me  be  permitted,  however,  to  observe,  that  the  experience  of  Mr. 
Janeway  in  his  last  moments,  while  it  developes  the  native  tendency 
of  Christianity,  is  not  to  be  considered  as  a  standard  to  ordinary 
Christians.  He  affords  a  great  example  of  what  is  attainable  in  religion, 
and  not  of  what  is  indispensably  necessary  to  salvation.  Thousands 
die  in  the  Lord  who  are  not  indulged  with  the  privilege  of  dying  in 
triumph.  His  extraordinary  diligence  in  the  whole  of  his  Christian 
career,  his  tenderness  of  conscience,  his  constant  vigilance,  his  vehement 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  met  with  a  signal  reward,  in- 
tended, probably,  not  more  for  his  own  personal  advantage,  than  as  a 
persuasive  to  others  to  walk  in  his  steps.  As  he  was  incessantly 
solicitous  to  improve  his  graces,  purify  his  principles,  and  perfect 
holiness  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  no  wonder  he  was  favoured  with  an 
abundant  entrance  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord.  "  He  which  sovveth 
sparingly  shall  reap  sparingly  ;  and  he  which  soweth  bountifully  shall 
reap  also  bountifully." 

Robert  Ham.. 


RECOMMENDATORY   PREFACE 

TO    A 

VOLUME  OF  HYMNS, 

Composed  by  the  late  Rev.  B.  Beddome,  M.  A. 
[Written  in  1818.] 


Far  be  it  from  me  to  indulge  the  presumptuous  idea  of  adding  to 
the  merited  reputation  of  Mr.  Beddome  by  my  feeble  suffrage.  But 
having  had  the  pleasure  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  that  eminent 
man,  and  cherishing  a  high  esteem  for  his  memory,  I  am  induced  to 
comply  the  more  cheerfully  with  the  wishes  of  the  editor,  by  prefixing 
a  few  words  to  the  present  publication.  Mr.  Beddome  was  on  many 
accounts  an  extraordinary  person.  His  mind  was  cast  in  an  original 
mould  ;  his  conceptions  on  every  subject  were  eminently  his  own ; 
and  where  the  stamina  of  his  thoughts  were  the  same  as  other  men's 
(as  must  often  be  the  case  with  the  most  original  thinkers),  a  pecu- 
liarity marked  the  mode  of  their  exhibition.  Favoured  with  the 
advantages  of  a  learned  education,  he  continued  to  the  last  to  cultivate 
au  acquaintance  with  the  best  writers  of  antiquity,  to  which  he  was 
much  indebted  for  the  chaste,  terse,  and  nervous  diction,  which  dis- 
tinguished his  compositions  both  in  prose  and  verse.  Though  he  spent 
the  principal  part  of  a  long  life  in  a  village  retirement,  he  was  eminent 
for  his  colloquial  powers,  in  which  he  displayed  the  urbanity  of  the 
gentleman  and  the  erudition  of  the  scholar,  combined  with  a  more  copious 
vein  of  attic  salt  than  any  person  it  has  been  my  lot  to  know.  As  a 
preacher,  he  was  universally  admired  for  the  piety  and  unction  of  his 
sentiments,  the  felicity  of  his  arrangement,  and  the  purity,  force,  and 
simplicity  of  his  language,  all  of  which  were  recommended  by  a 
delivery  perfectly  natural  and  graceful.  His  printed  discourses,  taken 
from  the  manuscripts  which  he  left  behind  him  at  his  decease,  are  fair 
specimens  of  his  usual  performances  in  the  pulpit.  They  are  eminent 
for  the  qualities  already  mentioned  ;  and  their  merits,  which  the  modesty 
of  the  author  concealed  from  himself,  have  been  justly  appreciated  by 
the  religious  public.  As  a  religious  poet,  his  excellence  has  long  been 
known  and  acknowledged  in  dissenting  congregations,  in  consequence 
of  several  admirable  compositions  inserted  in  some  popular  compila- 
tions.    The  variety  of  the  subjects  treated  of,  the  poetical  beauty  and 


PREFACE  TO  BEDDOME'S  HYMNS.  457 

elevation  of  some,  the  simple  pathos  of  others,  and  the  piety  and 
justness  of  thought  which  pervade  all  the  compositions  in  the  succeed- 
ing volume,  will,  we  trust,  be  deemed  a  valuable  accession  to  the 
treasures  of  sacred  poetry,  equally  adapted  to  the  closet  and  to  the 
sanctuary.  The  man  of  taste  will  be  gratified  with  the  beautiful  and 
original  turns  of  thought  which  many  of  them  exhibit ;  while  the 
experimental  Christian  will  often  perceive  the  most  secret  movements 
of  his  soul  strikingly  delineated,  and  sentiments  portrayed  which  will 
find  their  echo  in  every  heart.  Considerable  pains  have  been  taken 
to  arrange  the  hymns  in  such  a  manner  as  is  best  adapted  to  selection, 
from  a  persuasion,  which  we  trust  the  event  will  justify,  that  they  will 
be^  found  the  properest  supplement  to  Dr.  Watts  that  has  yet  appeared. 


A  PREFACE 

TO 

ANTINOMIANISM   UNMASKED, 

BY  THE  REV.  SAMUEL  CHASE. 

iWrittenin  1819.] 


It  is  with  considerable  reluctance  that  I  have  complied  with  the 
request  of  the  highly  esteemed  author  of  the  following  work,  by  pre- 
fixing a  short  preface ;  not  from  the  slightest  hesitation  respecting  the 
excellence  of  the  work,  itself,  but  from  an  aversion  to  the  seeming 
arrogance  of  pretending  to  recommend  what  might  rest  so  securely  on 
its  own  merits.  The  reader,  if  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,  will  find  in 
this  treatise  a  train  of  close  and  cogent  reasoning  from  the  oracles  of 
God  sufficient  to  overturn  from  their  foundation  the  principles  which 
compose  the  antinomian  heresy ;  which,  he  will  be  at  no  loss  to  per- 
ceive, are  as  much  opposed  to  the  grace  as  to  the  authority  of  the 
great  Head  of  the  church. 

The  fundamental  tenet  of  the  system  to  which  this  treatise  is  opposed 
consists  in  the  denial  of  the  obligation  of  believers  to  obey  the  precepts 
of  Christ,  in  supposing  that  their  interest  iu  the  merits  of  the  Redeemer 
releases  them  from  all  subjection  to  his  authority ;  and  as  it  is 
acknowledged  on  all  hands  that  he  is  the  sole  Lord  of  the  Christian 
dispensation,  the  immediate  consequence  is,  that  as  far  as  they  are 
concerned,  the  moral  government  of  the  Deity  is  annihilated — that  they 
have  ceased  to  be  accountable  creatures.  But  this  involves  the  total 
subversion  of  religion :  for  what  idea  can  we  form  of  a  religion  in 
which  all  the  obligations  of  piety  and  morality  are  done  away ;  in 
which  nothing  is  binding  or  imperative  on  the  conscience  ?  We  may 
conceive  of  a  religious  code  under  all  the  possible  gradations  of  laxness 
or  severity — of  its  demanding  more  or  less,  or  of  its  enforcing  its 
injunctions  by  penalties  more  or  less  formidable  ; — but  to  form  a  con- 
ception of  a  system  deserving  the  name  of  religion,  which  prescribes 
no  duties  whatever,  and  is  enforced  by  no  sanctions,  seems  an 
impossibility.  On  this  account  it  appears  to  me  improper  to  speak  of 
aniinomianism  as  a  religious  error  ;  religion,  whether  true  or  false,  has 
nothing  to  do  with  it :  it  is  rather  to  be  considered  as  an  attempt  to 


PREFACE  TO  ANTINOMIANISM  UNiMASKED.  459 

substitute  a  system  of  subtle  and  specious  impiety  in  the  room  of 
Christianity.  In  their  own  estimation,  its  disciples  are  a  privileged 
class,  who  dwell  in  a  secluded  region  of  unshaken  security  and  lawless 
liberty,  while  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world  are  the  vassals  of  legal 
bondage,  toiling  in  darkness  and  in  chains.  Hence,  whatever  diversity 
of  character  they  may  display  in  other  respects,  a  haughty  and  bitter 
disdain  of  every  other  class  of  professors  is  a  universal  feature.  Con- 
tempt or  hatred  of  the  most  devout  and  enlightened  Christians  out  of 
their  own  pale  seems  one  of  the  most  essential  elements  of  their  being ; 
nor  were  the  ancient  Pharisees  ever  more  notorious  for  "  trusting 
in  themselves  that  they  were  righteous,  and  despising  others." 

Of  the  force  of  legitimate  argument  they  seem  to  have  little  or  no 
perception,  having  contracted  an  inveterate  and  pernicious  habit  of 
shutting  their  ej^es  against  the  plainest  and  most  pointed  declarations 
of  the  word  of  God.  The  only  attempt  they  make  to  support  their 
miserable  system  is  to  adduce  a  number  of  detached  and  insulated 
passages  of  Scripture,  forcibly  torn  from  their  context,  and  interpreted 
with  more  regard  to  their  sound  than  to  their  meaning,  as  ascertained 
by  the  laws  of  sober  criticism.  Could  they  be  prevailed  upon  to 
engage  in  serious  dispassionate  controversy,  some  hope  might  be 
indulged  of  reclaiming  them  ;  their  errors  would  admit  of  an  easy  con- 
futation :  but  the  misfortune  is,  they  seem  to  feel  themselves  as  much 
released  from  the  restraints  of  reason  as  of  moral  obligation ;  and  the 
intoxication  of  spiritual  pride  has  incomparably  more  influence  in  form- 
ing their  persuasions  than  the  light  of  evidence. 

As  far  as  they  are  concerned,  my  expectation  of  benetit  from  the 
following  treatise  is  far  from  being  sanguine.  To  others,  however, 
who  may  be  in  danger  of  falling  a  prey  to  their  seduction,  it  may  prove 
an  important  preservative ;  to  the  young  and  inexperienced  it  will 
hold  out  a  faithful  warning,  by  unmasking  the  deformity,  and  revealing 
the  danger  of  that  pretended  doctrine  of  grace  which  is  employed  to 
annul  the  obligation  of  obedience.  They  will  learn  from  this  treatise, 
that  the  authority  of  Christ  as  Legislator  is  perfectly  compatible  with 
his  office  as  the  Redeemer  of  his  people ;  that  the  renewal  of  the  soul 
in  true  holiness  forms  a  principal  part  of  the  salvation  he  came 
to  bestow ;  that  the  privileges  of  the  evangelical  dispensation  are 
inseparably  combined  with  its  duties  ;  and  that  every  hope  of  eternal 
life  is  necessarily  presumptuous  and  unfounded,  which  is  not  connected 
with  "  keeping  the  commandments  of  God."  They  will  perceive  the 
beautiful  analogy  subsisting  between  the  Mosaic  and  Christian  dispen- 
sations ;  and  that  the  redemption  wrought  out  upon  the  cross  is  just  as 
subservient  to  the  spiritual  dominion  of  Christ  over  his  people,  as  was 
the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt  to  the  erection  of  a  the- 
ocracy in  the  Holy  Land :  in  a  word,  they  will  plainly  see  that  the 
regal  authority  of  Christ  over  his  church  belongs  to  the  very  essence 
of  the  evangelical  economy,  considered  as  an  annunciation  of  the  king- 
dom or  reign  of  God. 

To  trace  the  progress  of  antinomianism,  and  investigate  the  steps 
by  which  it  has  gradually  attained  its  fearful  ascendency,  though  an 


460  PREFACE  TO 

interesting  inquiry  would  lead  me  far  beyond  the  limits  of  this  preface. 
Suffice  it  to  suggest  a  few  circumstances  which  appear  to  me  to  have 
contributed  not  a  little  to  that  result.  When  religious  parties  have 
been  long  formed,  a  certain  technical  phraseology,  invented  to  designate 
more  exactly  the  peculiarities  of  the  respective  systems,  naturally 
grows  up.  What  custom  has  sanctioned  in  process  of  time  becomes 
law ;  and  the  slightest  deviation  from  the  consecrated  diction  comes  to 
be  viewed  with  suspicion  and  alarm.  Now  the  technical  language 
appropriated  to  the  expression  of  the  Calvinistic  system  in  its  nicer 
shades,  however  justifiable  in  itself,  has,  by  its  perpetual  recurrence, 
narrowed  the  vocabulary  of  religion,  and  rendered  obsolete  many  modes 
of  expression  which  the  sacred  writers  indulge  without  scruple.  The 
latitude  with  which  they  express  themselves  on  various  subjects  has 
been  gradually  relinquished  ;  a  scrupulous  and  systematic  cast  of  dic- 
tion has  succeeded  to  the  manly  freedom  and  noble  negligence  they 
were  accustomed  to  display  ;  and  many  expressions,  employed  without 
hesitation  in  Scripture,  are  rarely  found,  except  in  the  direct  form  of 
quotation,  in  the  mouth  of  a  modern  Calvinist. 

In  addition  to  this,  nothing  is  more  usual  than  for  the  zealous 
abetters  of  a  system,  with  the  best  intentions,  to  magnify  the  importance 
of  its  peculiar  tenets  by  hyperbolical  exaggerations,  calculated  to 
identify  them  with  the  fundamental  articles  of  faith.  Thus,  the  Calvin- 
istic doctrines  have  often  been  denominated  by  divines  of  deservedly 
high  reputation,  the  doctrines  of  grace ;  implying,  not  merely  their 
truth,  but  that  they  constitute  the  very  essence  and  marrow  of  the 
gospel.  Hence  persons  of  little  reflection  have  been  tempted  to  con- 
clude that  the  zealous  inculcation  of  these  comprehends  nearly  the 
whole  system  of  revealed  truth,  or  as  much  of  it,  at  least,  as  is  of  vital 
importance  ;  and  that  no  danger  whatever  can  result  from  giving  them 
the  greatest  possible  prominence.  But  the  transition  from  a  partial 
exhibition  of  truth  to  the  adoption  of  positive  error  is  a  most  natural 
one :  and  he  who  commences  with  consigning  certain  important  doc- 
trines to  oblivion  will  generally  end  in  perverting  or  denying  them. 
The  authority  of  the  laws  of  Christ,  his  proper  dominion  over  his 
people,  and  the  absolute  necessity  of  evangelical  obedience  in  order  to 
eternal  life,  though  perfectly  consistent  in  my  apprehension  with 
Calvinism,  form  no  part  of  it,  considered  as  a  separate  system.  In  the 
systematic  mode  of  instruction  they  are  consequently  omitted,  or  so 
slightly  and  sparingly  adverted  to,  that  they  are  gradually  lost  sight 
of;  and  when  they  are  presented  to  the  attention,  being  supported  by 
no  habitual  mental  associations,  they  wear  the  features  of  a  strange 
and  exotic  character.  They  are  repelled  with  disgust  and  suspicion, 
not  because  they  are  perceived  to  be  at  variance  with  the  dictates  of 
inspiration  (their  agreement  with  which  may  be  immediately  obvious), 
hut  simply  because  they  deviate  from  the  trains  of  thought  which  the 
hearer  is  accustomed  to  pursue  with  complacency.  It  is  purely  an 
affair  of  taste  ;  it  is  neither  the  opposition  of  reason  nor  of  conscience 
which  is  concerned,  but  the  mere  operation  of  antipathy. 

The  paucity  of  practical  instruction, — the   practice   of  dwelling 


ANTINOMIANISM  UNMASKED.  461 

almost  exclusively  in  the  exercise  of  the  ministry  on  doctrinal  and  ex- 
perimental topics,  with  a  sparing  inculcation  of  the  precepts  of  Christ 
and  the  duties  of  morality, — is  abundantly  sufficient,  without  the 
slightest  admixture  of  error,  to  produce  the  effect  of  which  we  are 
speaking:  nor  is  it  to  be  doubted  that  even  holy  and  exemplary 
men  have  by  these  means  paved  the  way  for  antinomianism.  When 
they  have  found  it  necessary  to  advert  to  points  of  morality,  and  to 
urge  them  on  Scriptural  motives,  the  difference  between  these  and 
their  usual  strain  of  instruction  has  produced  a  sort  of  mental  revul- 
sion. Conscious,  meanwhile,  that  they  have  taught  nothing  but  the 
pure  and  uncorrupted  word  of  God, — have  inculcated  no  doctrine  but 
what  appears  to  be  sustained  by  the  fair  interpretation  of  the  word, — 
they  are  astonished  at  perceiving  the  eager  impetuosity  with  which  a 
part  of  their  hearers  run  into  antinomian  excesses :  when  a  thorough 
investigation  might  convince  them,  that  though  they  have  inculcated 
truth,  it  has  not  been  altogether  "  as  it  is  in  Jesus  ;"  that  many  awaken- 
ing and  alarming  considerations  familiar  to  the  Scriptures  have  been 
neglected,  much  of  their  pungent  and  practical  appeal  to  the  conscience 
suppressed,  and  a  profusion  of  cordials  and  stimulants  administered, 
where  cathartics  were  required. 

In  the  New  Testament,  the  absolute  subserviency  of  doctrinal  state- 
ments to  the  formation  of  the  principles  and  habits  of  practical  piety 
is  never  lost  sight  of;  we  are  continually  reminded  that  obedience  is 
the  end  of  all  knowledge,  and  of  all  religious  impressions.  But  the 
tendency,  it  is  to  be  feared,  of  much  popular  and  orthodox  instruction 
is,  to  bestow  on  the  belief  of  certain  doctrines,  combined  with  strong 
religious  emotion,  the  importance  of  an  ultimate  object,  to  the  neglect 
of  that  great  principle  that  "  circumcision  is  nothing,  and  uncircumcision 
nothing,  but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God."  While  it  is  but 
candid  to  suppose  that  some  are  beguiled  through  the  "  good  words  and 
fair  speeches"  by  which  the  apostles  of  antinomianism  recommend  them- 
selves to  the  unlearned  and  unstable,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  they 
are  chieffy  indebted  for  their  success  to  the  aversion  which  many  feel  to 
Christianity  as  a  practical  system.  Divest  it  of  its  precepts  and  its  sanc- 
tions,— represent  it  as  a  mere  charter  of  privileges, — a  provision  for 
investing  a  certain  class  with  a  title  to  eternal  life,  independent  of 
every  moral  discrimination, — and  it  will  be  eagerly  embraced :  but  it 
will  not  be  the  religion  of  the  New  Testament ;  it  will  not  be  the 
religion  of  him  who  closed  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount  by  reminding  his 
hearers  that  he  who  "  heareth  his  sayings,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall 
be  likened  to  a  man  who  built  his  house  upon  the  sand,  and  the  storm 
came,  and  the  rains  descended,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  on  that 
house,  and  it  fell,  because  it  was  founded  upon  the  sand." 

The  most  effectual  antidote  to  the  leaven  of  antinomianism  will 
probably  be  found  in  the  frequent  and  earnest  inculcation  of  the  prac- 
tical precepts  of  the  gospel ;  in  an  accurate  delineation  of  the  Chris- 
tian temper  ;  in  a  specific  and  minute  exposition  of  the  personal,  social, 
and  relative  duties,  enforced  at  one  time  by  the  endearing,  at  another 
by  the  alarming  motives   which  revelation  abundantly  suggests.     To 


462  PREFACE  TO 

overlook  the  distinguishing  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  under  the  pretence 
of  advancing  the  interests  of  morality,  is  one  extreme ;  to  inculcate 
those  doctrines  without  habitually  adverting  to  their  purifying  and 
transforming  influence,  is  another,  not  less  dangerous.  If  the  former 
involves  the  folly  of  attempting  to  rear  a  structure  without  a  foundation, 
the  latter  leaves  it  naked  and  useless. 

A  large  infusion  of  practical  instruction  may  be  expected  to  operate 
as  an  alterative  in  the  moral  constitution.  Without  displacing  a 
single  article  from  the  established  creed — without  modifying  or  changing 
the  minutest  particle  of  speculative  belief, — it  will  generate  a  habit 
of  contemplating  religion  in  its  true  character,  as  a  system  of  moral 
government,  as  a  wise  and  gracious  provision  for  re-establishing  the 
dominion  of  God  in  the  heart  of  an  apostate  creature.  Though  there 
must  unquestionably  be  a  perfect  agreement  between  all  revealed 
truths,  because  truth  is  ever  consistent  with  itself,  yet  they  are  not  all 
adapted  to  produce  the  same  immediate  impression.  They  contribute 
to  the  same  ultimate  object,  "  the  perfecting  the  man  of  Gfod,"  by  opposite 
tendencies ;  and  while  some  are  immediately  adapted  to  inspire  con- 
fidence and  joy,  others  are  fitted  to  produce  vigilance  and  fear ;  like 
different  species  of  diet,  which  may,  in  their  turn,  be  equally  conducive 
to  health,  though  their  action  on  the  system  be  dissimilar.  Hence  it 
is  of  great  importance,  not  merely  that  the  doctrine  that  is  taught  be 
sound  and  scriptural,  but  that  the  proportion  maintained  amid  the 
various  articles  of  religious  instruction  coincide  as  far  as  possible 
with  the  inspired  model ;  that  each  doctrine  occupy  its  proper  place  in 
the  scale ;  that  the  whole  counsel  of  God  be  unfolded,  and  no  one 
part  of  revealed  truth  be  presented  with  a  frequency  and  prominence 
which  shall  cast  the  others  into  shade.  The  progress  of  antino- 
mianism,  if  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,  may  be  ascribed,  in  a  great 
measure,  to  the  neglect  of  these  precautions, — to  an  intemperate  and 
almost  exclusive  inculcation  of  doctrinal  points. 

Even  when  the  necessity  of  an  exemplary  conduct  is  enforced  upon 
Christians,  an  attentive  and  intelligent  hearer  will  frequently  perceive 
a  manifest  difl*erence  between  the  motives  by  which  it  is  urged,  and 
those  which  are  presented  by  the  inspired  writers.  The  latter  are  not 
afraid  of  reminding  every  description  of  professors,  without  exception, 
that  "  if  they  live  after  the  flesh  they  shall  die ;"  and  that  they  will 
then  only  "  be  partakers  of  Christ,  if  they  hold  fast  the  beginning  of 
their  confidence,  and  rejoicing  of  their  hope,  firm  unto  the  end ;" 
while  too  many  content  themselves  with  insisting  on  considerations 
which,  whatever  weight  they  may  possess  on  a  devout  and  tender  spirit, 
it  is  the  first  eflfect  of  sinful  indulgence  to  impair.  Of  this  nature  is 
the  menace  of  spiritual  desertion,  darkness,  absence  of  religious  con- 
solation, and  other  spiritual  evils,  which  will  always  be  found  to  be  less 
alarming  just  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  religious  declension.  To 
combat  the  moral  distempers  to  which  the  professors  of  religion  are 
liable  by  such  antidotes  as  these,  is  appealing  to  a  certain  refinement 
of  feeling,  which  the  disease  has  extinguished  or  diminished,  instead 
of  alarming  them  with  the  prospect  of  death.     It  was  not  by  senti- 


ANTINOMIANISM  UNMASKED.  463 

mental  addresses,  nor  by  an  appeal  to  the  delicacies  and  sensibilities 
of  a  soul  diseased,  that  the  apostles  proposed  to  alarm  the  fears  or 
revive  the  vigilance  of  disorderly  waliiers :  they  drew  aside  the  veil 
of  eternity  ;  they  presented  the  thought,  in  all  its  terror,  of  the  coming 
of  Christ,  "  as  a  thief  in  the  night."  I  would  not  be  understood  to 
insinuate  that  the  more  refined  topics  of  appeal  may  not  occasionally 
be  resorted  to  with  great  propriety ;  all  I  would  be  supposed  to  regret 
is,  the  exclusive  employment  of.  a  class  of  considerations,  of  one  order 
of  motives,  derived  from  religious  sensibility,  to  the  neglect  of  those 
which  are  founded  on  eternal  prospects  and  interests.  As  it  is  seldom 
safe  for  an  accountable  creature  to  lose  sight  of  these  in  his  most 
elevated  moments  ;  so  least  of  all  can  they  be  dispensed  with  in  the 
season  of  successful  temptation.  It  is  then  especially,  if  I  am  not 
greatly  mistaiien,  whatever  may  have  been  our  past  profession  or 
attainments,  that  we  need  to  be  reminded  of  the  awful  certainty  of  future 
retribution,  to  recall  to  our  remembrance  that  "  whatsoever  a  man 
soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  If,  in  the  scheme  of  doctrine  we 
have  embraced,  we  suspect  there  is  something  incompatible  with  the 
use  of  such  admonitions,  we  may  be  assured,  either  that  the  doctrine 
itself  is  false,  or  that  our  inference  from  it  is  erroneous,  since  no  specu- 
lative tenets  in  religion  can  be  so  indubitably  certain  as  the  universality 
of  the  moral  government  of  God. 

Before  I  close  this  preface,  T  must  be  permitted  to  add,  that  the 
prevailing  practice  of  representing  the  promises  of  the  gospel  as  un- 
conditional,  or,  at  least  of  carefully  avoiding  the  obvious  phraseology 
which  the  contrary  supposition  would  suggest,  appears  to  me  directly 
to  pave  the  way  to  antinomianism.  The  idea  of  meritorious  conditions 
is,  indeed,  utterly  incompatible  with  the  gospel,  considered  as  a  system 
of  grace.  But  if  there  be  no  conditions  of  salvation  whatever,  how  it 
is  possible  to  confute  the  pretensions  or  confound  the  confidence  of  the 
most  licentious  professor,  I  am  at  an  utter  loss  to  discover.  It  will  be 
in  vain  to  allege  the  entire  absence  of  internal  holiness,  together  with 
all  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  as  defeating  his  hope  of  eternal  life ;  since, 
upon  the  supposition  we  are  combating,  the  answer  is  ready,  that  the 
enjoyment  of  future  felicity  is  suspended  on  no  conditions.  The  ab- 
surdity of  this  notion  is  not  less  palpable  than  its  presumption.  All 
promises  must  either  be  made  to  individuals  by  name,  or  indefinitely 
to  persons  of  a  specific  character.  A  moment's  attention  will  be  suf- 
ficient to  satisfy  us  that  the  promise  of  pardon  in  the  New  Testament 
is  of  the  latter  description ;  in  no  one  instance  is  it  addressed  to  the 
individual  by  name,  but  to  the  penitent,  the  believing,  the  obedient,  or 
to  some  similar  specification  of  character.  Before  any  person,  there- 
fore, can  justly  appropriate  the  promise  to  himself,  he  must  ascertain 
his  possession  of  that  character  ;  or,  which  is  precisely  the  same  thing, 
he  must  perceive  that  he  comes  within  the  prescribed  condition.  When 
it  is  affirmed  that  "  except  we  repent  we  shall  perish,"  is  it  not  mani- 
fest that  he  only  is  entitled  to  claim  exemption  from  that  doom  who  is 
conscious  of  the  feelings  of  a  penitent  ?  For  the  same  reason,  if  he 
only  who  believes  shall  be  saved,  our  assurance  of  salvation,  as  far  as 


46i  PREFACE  TO  ANTINOMIANISM  UNMASKED. 

it  depends  upon  evidence,  must  be  exactly  proportioned  to  the  certainty 
we  feel  of  our  actual  believing.  To  abandon  these  principles  is  to 
involve  ourselves  in  an  inextricable  labyrinth,  to  lie  open  to  the  grossest 
delusions,  to  build  conclusions  of  infinite  moment  on  phantoms  light  as 
air.  He  who  flatters  himself  with  the  hope  of  salvation,  without  per- 
ceiving in  himself  a  specific  difference  of  character  from  "  the  world 
that  lieth  in  wickedness,"  either  founds  his  persuasion  absolutely  on 
nothing,  or  on  an  immediate  revelation, — on  a  preternatural  discovery  of  a 
matter  of  fact  on  which  the  Scriptures  are  totally  silent.  This  absurd 
notion  of  unconditional  promises,  by  severing  the  assurance  of  salvation 
from  all  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  from  every  trace  and  feature  of  a 
renovated  nature  and  a  regenerate  state,  opens  the  widest  possible 
door  to  licentiousness. 

As  far  as  it  is  sustained  by  the  least  shadow  of  reasoning,  it  may  be 
traced  to  the  practice  of  confounding  the  secret  purposes  of  the  Supreme 
Being  with  his  revealed  promises.  That  in  the  breast  of  the  Deity  an 
eternal  purpose  has  been  formed  respecting  the  salvation  of  a  certain 
portion  of  the  human  race,  is  a  doctrine  which  it  appears  to  me  is 
clearly  revealed.  But  this  secret  purpose  is  so  far  from  being  incom- 
patible with  the  necessary  conditions  of  salvation,  that  they  form  a 
part  of  it ;  their  existence  is  an  inseparable  link  in  the  execution  of 
the  divine  decree :  for  the  same  wisdom  which  has  appointed  the  end 
has  also  infallibly  determined  the  means  by  which  it  shall  be  accom- 
plished ;  and  as  the  personal  direction  of  the  decree  remains  a  secret 
until  it  is  developed  in  the  event,  it  cannot  possibly,  considered  in  itself, 
lay  a  foundation  for  confidence.  That  a  certain  number  of  the  human 
race  are  ordained  to  eternal  life  may  be  inferred  from  many  passages 
of  Scripture ;  but  if  any  person  infers  from  these  general  premises 
that  he  is  of  that  number,  he  advances  a  proposition  without  the  slightest 
colour  of  evidence.  An  assurance  of  salvation  can,  consequently,  in 
no  instance,  be  deduced  from  the  doctrine  of  absolute  decrees,  until 
they  manifest  themselves  in  their  actual  effects  ;  that  is,  in  that  renewal 
of  the  heart  which  the  Bible  affirms  to  be  essential  to  future  felicity. 

But  I  am  detaining  the  reader  too  long  from  the  pleasure  and  advan- 
tage he  may  promise  himself  from  the  perusal  of  the  following  treatise, 
where  he  will  meet  with  no  illiberal  insinuations,  no  personal  invective, 
— the  too  frequent  seasoning  of  controversy,  and  the  ordinary  gratifi- 
cation of  vulgar  minds, — but  a  series  of  calm  and  dispassionate  reason- 
ings out  of  the  Scriptures.  That  they  may  produce  all  the  beneficial 
results  which  the  excellent  author  has  so  much  at  heart,  is  the  fervent 
prayer  of  the  writer  of  these  lines. 

Robert  Hall. 

Leicester,  July  2,  1819. 


A   LETTER 

TO 

THE    REV.    W.    BENNETT, 

Author  of  an  Estay  on  the  Gospel  ConstUution. 


January  18»  1810. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  OUGHT  sooner  to  have  acknowledged  to  you  the  great  pleasure  I 
derived  from  the  performance  you  were  so  kind  as  to  give  me  at  North- 
ampton. I  have  read  it  with  as  much  attention  as  I  am  able ;  and 
though  the  subject  is  involved  in  so  much  difficulty,  I  admired  the  perspi- 
cuity with  which  it  was  treated,  so  as  to  be  within  the  limits  of  an 
ordinary  capacity.  There  is  a  precision  and  comprehension  in  the 
choice  of  terms,  and  a  luminous  track  of  thought  pervading  the  whole, 
which,  according  to  my  apprehension,  has  scarcely  been  equalled, 
and  never  exceeded,  in  the  discussion  of  such  points.  I  do  think  you 
have  steered  a  happy  medium,  between  the  rigidity  of  Calvinism  and 
the  laxness  of  Arminianism,  and  have  succeeded  in  the  solution  of  the 
grand  difficulty — the  consistency  between  general  offers  and  invitations, 
and  the  speciality  of  divine  grace.  This  interesting  question  is  handled 
with  masterly  ability.  I  am  particularly  delighted  with  your  explicit 
statement  and  vindication  of  the  established  connexion  between  the 
use  of  instituted  means  and  the  attainment  of  divine  blessings,  and  the 
consequent  hypothetical  possibility  of  the  salvation  of  all  men  where 
the  gospel  comes.  On  this  point  the  representations  of  Calvinists 
have  Irmg  appeared  to  me  very  defective ;  and  that,  fettered  by  their 
system,  they  have  by  no  means  gone  so  far  in  encouraging  and  urging 
sinners  to  the  use  of  prayer,  reading  the  Scriptures,  self-examination, 
&c.,  as  the  Scriptures  justify.  They  have  contented  themselves  too 
much  with  enjoining  and  inculcating  the  duty  of  faith,  which,  however 
important  and  indispensable,  is  not,  I  apprehend,  usually  imparted  till 
men  have  been  earnestly  led  to  seek  and  strive.  Here  the  Arminians, 
such  of  them  as  are  evangelical,  have  had  greatly  the  advantage  of 
the  Calvinists  in  pleading  with  sinners.  Your  great  principle  of  the 
design  of  religion,  in  every  dispensation  of  it,  being  intended  as  the 
pursuit  of  the  plan  of  divine  government  for  exercising  the  moral 
powers  and  faculties  of  creatures,  is  grand  and  noble,  and  gives  conti- 

VoL.  II.— G  g 


466  LETTER  TO  THE  REV.  W.  BEXx\ETT. 

nuity  and  harmony  to  the  whole  scheme.  I  lent  your  book  to  Mr.  B — 
who  is  much  pleased  with  it,  and  only  wishes  you  had  expressed  your- 
self more  fully  in  favour  of  the  general  extent  of  Christ's  death.  I 
think  you  have  asserted  it  by  implication,  though  I  wish  you  had 
asserted  it  unequivocally,  because  I  am  fully  persuaded  it  is  a  doctrine 
of  Scripture,  and  that  it  forms  the  only  consistent  basis  of  unlimited 
invitations.  I  think  the  most  enlightened  Calvinists  are  too  reserved 
on  this  head ;  and  that  their  refusal  to  declare,  with  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  Scripture,  that  Christ  died  for  all  men,  tends  to  confirm 
the  prejudices  of  Methodists,  and  others,  against  election  and  special 
grace.  With  this  small  exception,  if  it  be  an  exception,  yoiir  work 
appears  to  me  to  be  entitled  to  the  highest  approbation  and  applause  ; 
and  I  cannot  but  hope  it  will  have  an  important  effect  in  bringing  good 
men  nearer  together ;  than  which  I  know  nothing  more  desirable. 
Wishing  you  much  success  in  every  labour  of  your  hands, 
1  remain,  dear  Sir, 

With  high  esteem. 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

Robert  Hall. 


AN  EXTRACT 


FROM 
DR.   JOHNSON'S   PREFACE   TO   COWPER'S   CORRESPONDENCE. 


"  I  ACCOUNT  myself  particularly  fortunate  in  being  favoured  wit^ 
the  opinion  of  confessedly  one  of  the  best  judges  of  composition  that 
this  country  has  to  boast — the  Rev.  Robert  Hall,  of  Leicester.  In  a 
letter  addressed  to  me,  on  the  19th  of  August  of  the  present  year, 
1823,  he  writes  thus  : — 

" '  It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  say  that  I  perused  the  letters  with  great 
admiration  and  delight.  I  have  always  considered  the  letters  of  Mr. 
Cowper  as  the  finest  specimen  of  the  epistolary  style  in  our  language  i 
and  these  appear  to  me  of  a  superior  description  to  the  former,  pos- 
sessing as  much  beauty  with  more  piety  and  pathos.  To  an  air  of 
inimitable  ease  and  carelessness,  they  unite  a  higher  degree  of  correct- 
ness, such  as  could  result  only  from  tlie  clearest  intellect,  combined 
with  the  most  finished  taste.  I  have  scarcely  found  a  single  M'ord 
which  is  capable  of  being  exchanged  for  a  better. 

"  '  Literary  errors  I  can  discern  none.  The  selection  of  words  and 
the  structure  of  the  periods  are  inimitable ;  they  present  as  striking  a 
contrast  as  can  well  be  conceived  to  the  turgid  verbosity  which  passes 
at  present  for  fine  writing,  and  which  bears  a  great  resemblance  to 
the  degeneracy  which  marks  the  style  of  Ammianus  MarcelHnus,  as 
compared  to  that  of  Cicero  or  of  Livy.  A  perpetual  effort  and  struggle 
is  made  to  supply  the  place  of  vigour,  garish  and  dazzling  colours  are 
substituted  for  chaste  ornament,  and  the  hideous  distortions  of  weakness 
for  native  strength.  In  my  humble  opinion,  the  study  of  Cowper's 
prose  may,  on  this  account,  be  as  useful  in  forming  the  taste  of  young 
people  as  his  poetry. 

"  '  That  the  letters  will  afford  great  deliglit  to  all  persons  of  true  taste; 
and  that  you  will  confer  a  most  acceptable  present  on  the  readings 
world  by  publishing  them,  will  not  admit  of  a  doubt.' " 

Gg2 


THE 

SPIRITUAL  CONDITION  AND  PROSPECTS 

OF 

THE   JEWS. 

iWrittenin  1826.] 


Few  perhaps  are  to  be  found  who  have  made  religion  the  object  of 
their  serious  attention,  who  have  not  bestowed  some  thought  on  the 
spiritual  condition  and  prospects  of  the  Jews, — a  people  on  many- 
accounts  the  most  remarkable  of  any  that  have  appeared  on  the  stage 
of  time.  Intermingled  with  all  nations,  but  uniting  with  none, — distin- 
guished by  their  attachment  to  one  portion  of  revelation,  and  their 
aversion  to  another, — equally  removed  from  the  errors  of  polytheism, 
and  the  belief  of  Christianity,  they  occupy  a  station  peculiar  to  them- 
selves :  "  they  dwell  alone,  and  are  not  reckoned  among  the  people." 
In  this  state  of  seclusion,  it  seems  generally  taken  for  granted  that 
they  are  not  only  the  frown  of  Providence,  but  that  they  are  universally 
under  the  Divine  malediction,  exposed  to  the  doom  of  the  impenitent 
and  unbelieving.  Their  disbelief  of  the  gospel  is  supposed,  without  any 
exception,  to  render  them  liable  to  the  penalties  of  eternal  death.  I 
have  sometimes  been  tempted  to  doubt  of  this ;  and  the  design  of  my 
addressing  you  on  the  present  occasion  is  briefly  to  state  the  grounds 
on  which  my  doubts  are  founded,  not  with  a  view  to  provoke  contro- 
versy, but  solely  to  elicit  the  inquiry  of  superior  minds. 

1.  An  essential  difference  exists  between  the  Jews  and  other  unbe- 
lievers, in  a  particular  of  great  moment ;  which  is,  that  they  are  already 
in  the  possession  of  the  oracles  of  God,  and,  in  these,  of  all  that  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  salvation.  That  the  Old  Testament  is  suffi- 
cient to  conduct  men  to  eternal  life  is  evident,  from  the  testimony  it 
bears  of  itself,  as  well  as  from  the  acknowledged  scope  and  design  of 
a  revelation  ;  for  it  would  be  a  reflection  on  infinite  Wisdom  to  suppose 
it  capable  of  communicating  a  revelation  which  necessarily  failed  in 
its  principal  object,  that  of  "  making  men  wise  unto  salvation."  Nor 
is  it  less  certain  that  some  of  the  eminent  saints  and  favourites  of  the 
Most  High  flourished  under  the  Jewish  dispensation.  The  doctrines 
taught  by  Moses  and  the  prophets,  it  must  be  confessed,  are  in  them- 
selves an  adequate  instrument  of  sanctification,  so  that,  if  he  who 
conscientiously  avails  himself  of  it  falls  short  of  eternal  life,  it  must 


THE  SPIRITUAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  JEWS.  469 

be  ascribed  to  the  intervention   of  a  subsequent  and  more  perfect 
revelation. 

2.  As  a  subsequent  dispensation,  liowever,  has  been  given,  enforced 
by  the  penaUy  of  eternal  death,  it  may  be  thought  this  is  sufficient  at 
once  to  determine  the  future  condition  of  those  who  reject  it,  and 
consequently  to  preclude  the  unconverted  part  of  the  Jews  from  all 
hope  of  salvation.  It  is  agreed  that  the  deliberate  rejection  of  the 
gospel  involves  a  sentence  of  condemnation :  but  that  only  can  be 
said  to  be  rejected  which  is  adeqiiatply  proposed.  By  the  ancient 
Jews,  Christianity  was  rejected.  Our  Lord  "  came  to  his  own,  and 
his  own  received  hiiu  not."  They  heard  his  discourses  ;  they  witnessed 
his  miracles,  or  at  least  had  the  same  evidenne  of  them  as  they  had  of 
other  matters  of  public  notoriety  ;  they  beheld  the  spotless  innocence 
of  his  life,  and  the  perfect  correspondence  of  the  leading  events  of  his 
history  to  the  predictions  of  their  prophets  ;  nor  was  there  any  preju- 
dice existing  against  Christianity,  but  what  was  of  recent  growth,  the 
pure  effect  of  carnality,  impenitence,  and  hardness  of  heart.  They 
knew  enough  of  the  Christian  religion  to  discern  its  sanctifying 
tendency,  and  to  hate  it  on  that  account :  their  rejection  of  it  betrayed 
an  enmity  to  the  true  character  of  God,  and  therefore  incurred  all  the 
guilt  included  in  that  solemn  assertion  of  our  Lord,  "  But  now  they 
have  both  seen  and  hated  both  me  and  my  Father."  Their  opposition 
to  Christ  was  not  the  resistance  made  to  the  encroachments  of  a 
foreign  dominion  ;  it  was  domestic  rebellion.  The  evidence  of  Chris- 
tianity was  presented  in  all  its  force  and  splendour  ;  it  came  into  actual 
contact  with  the  mind,  and  on  that  very  account  produced  a  feeling  of 
hostility  to  its  spirit  and  its  claims,  which  would  not  have  been  felt 
towards  an  object  more  remote. 

3.  But  the  position  in  which  Christianity  stands  towards  modern 
Jews  is  very  different.  Their  knowledge  of  it  must  be  derived  almost 
entirely  from  the  New  Testament,  and  the  causes  which  may  in  many 
instances  be  supposed  to  divert  their  attention  from  it,  are  very  dis- 
similar to  those  which  originated  the  incredulity  of  their  ancestors. 
The  prohibition  of  the  New  Testament  is  a  primary  element  in  Jewish 
education.  The  absolute  sufficiency  of  the  writings  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  and  the  impropriety  of  presuming  to  add  to  these  lively 
oracles,  and  to  abrogate  an  everlasting  law,  are  among  the  first  princi- 
ples instilled  into  the  infant  mind.  They  are  taught  to  repose  with 
the  utmost  confidence  on  a  religion  which  even  Christians  confess  to 
be  of  divine  origin ;  while  the  system  which  has  superseded  it  is 
comparatively  of  recent  origin,  and  little  accredited  by  its  efficacy  in 
correcting  the  vices  and  forming  the  manners  of  its  followers.  They 
are  told,  indeed,  that  Christianity  is  the  sequel  and  completion  of  the 
ancient  religion, — that  it  substantiates  its  types  and  accomplishes  its 
prophecies ;  but  they  are  told  so  by  those  whom  they  have  few 
inducements  to  regard.  Respect  for  paternal  authority,  veneration 
for  an  illustrious  ancestry,  deference  to  age  and  rank,  combine 
with  the  fear  of  innovation,  and  an  attachment,  though  too  ex- 
clusive, to  Moses  and  the  prophets,  to  keep  them  ignorant  of  the 


470  THE  SPIRITUAL  CONDITION  AND 

New  Testament,  and  consequently  estranged  from  the  principal 
means  of  conviction.  But  the  principles  which  we  have  alluded  to 
are  usually  the  strongest  in  the  most  virtuous  and  susceptible  minds ; 
nor  is  it  difficult  to  conceive  what  an  effectual  bar  they  may  prove  to 
the  perusal  of  the  Christian  records,  apart  from  those  criminal  preju- 
dices which  occasioned  the  rejection  of  Christianity  by  their  ancestors. 
The  disbelief  of  Christianity  on  the  part  of  such  as  have  been  trained 
on  Christian  principles  can  seldom,  if  ever,  be  imputed  to  ignorance — 
convictions  must  be  stiflpd,  and  the  force  of  evidence  evaded  ;  but  the 
unbelief  of  modern  .Tews  is  the  natural  consequence  of  their  want  of 
acquaintance  with  an  inspired  record. 

The  portion  of  revelation  which  the  .Tew  possesses  already  contains 
whatever  is  absolutely  necessary  to  be  known  in  order  to  obtain  eternal 
life,  Jews  and  Christians,  at  variance  about  every  thing  else,  unite 
their  suffrages  in  its  favour,  affirming  unanimously  that  it  was  for 
upwards  of  two  thousand  years  the  authentic  revelation  of  the  will  of 
Heaven.  A  Jew,  therefore,  cannot  doubt  of  its  competence  to  make 
him  wise  unto  salvation.  On  the  other  hand,  he  is  taught,  from  a 
quarter  which  God  and  nature  enjoin  him  to  revere,  to  look  upon  the 
New  Testament  as  an  imposture.  In  this  instance,  it  is  but  candid  to 
suppose  that  the  records  of  our  religion  are  neglected,  not  always 
from  the  love  of  vice,  or  the  predominance  of  worldly  interests,  but 
from  a  conscientious  fear  of  innovation  and  dread  of  impiety.  He  is 
necessarily  ignorant  of  a  book  which  never  engaged  his  attention ; 
and  that  it  failed  to  engage  it  is  the  effect  of  an  exclusive,  and,  in  that 
respect  only,  an  erroneous  attachment  to  an  inspiration  of  an  earlier  date. 

4.  Supposing  him,  from  these  and  similar  causes,  to  remain  all  his 
life  unacquainted  with  the  Christian  system,  and  consequently  uninflu- 
enced by  its  doctrines,  have  we  any  authority  for  asserting  that  he 
cannot  possibly  be  the  subject  of  divine  grace,  possessed  as  he  is  of 
an  instrument  of  sanctification,  which  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  ages,  con- 
descended to  employ  ?  A  new  revelation  can  make  no  alteration  in  the 
intrinsic  nature  of  that  which  precedes  it;  and  if  the  Old  Testament 
ever  was  sufficient  to  make  men  wise  unto  salvation,  why  should  we 
doubt  of  its  being  still  competent  for  that  purpose  ?  Had  it  been  the 
only  companion  of  one  that  was  shipwrecked  on  a  desert  island,  shall 
we  hesitate  to  believe  that  its  serious  perusal  might  be  instrumental  to 
his  salvation  ?  Here  indeed  the  absence  of  other  means  of  instruction 
would  be  the  unavoidable  consequence  of  providential  arrangements, 
which  cannot  with  equal  propriety  be  affirmed  in  the  case  of  our  Jew. 
But  though  his  ignorance  of  the  New  Testament  cannot  be  said  to  be 
the  necessary  consequence  of  the  circumstances  attending  his  birth 
and  education,  the  obstacles  which  they  may  be  supposed  to  present 
are  very  powerful,  and  not  at  all  necessarily  complicated  with  deep 
moral  pravity.  The  utmost  tenderness  of  conscience,  the  greatest 
solicitude  for  salvation,  could  not  be  supposed  to  prevent  a  youth 
strictly  educated  in  the  principles  of  Judaism  from  contracting  preju- 
dices against  Christianity,  the  natural  operation  of  which  would  be  to 
indispose  hini  to  the  perusal  of  its  inspired  records,     The  agency  of 


PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS,  471 

the  Spirit  is  of  a  moral,  not  a  physical  nature  ;  nor  is  it  his  manner  to 
interfere  with  the  action  of  natural  caus«s. 

5.  Admitting,  however,  that  as  much  criminality  attaches  to  the  pre- 
judice which  keeps  a  conscientious  Jew  ignorant  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  the  most  zealous  will  contend  for,  it  appears  to  be  of  the 
same  order  with  that  which  operates  in  other  instances,  without  our 
suspecting  for  a  moment  that  it  is  incompatible  with  salvation.  What 
shall  we  say  of  the  prejudice  wliich  prompted  such  men  as  Pascal  and 
Fenelon  to  reject  the  Protestant  doctrine  with  which  they  were  far  better 
acquainted  than  a  modern  Jew  can  be  supposed  to  be  with  the  Christian 
Scriptures  ?  The  opportunities  which  they  enjoyed  for  satisfying  them- 
selves of  the  truth  of  the  reformed  religion  were  at  least  equal  to  those 
■which  a  Jew  possesses  for  becoming-  an  enlightened  convert  to  the 
Christian  faith  ;  and  the  circumstances,  whatever  they  were,  that  indis- 
posed those  illustrious  men  to  the  impartial  examination  of  the  Lutheran 
or  Calvinistic  tenets,  were  neither  more  numerous  nor  more  powerful 
than  those  which  produce  a  similar  indisposition  in  Jews  to  investigate 
the  evidence  of  our  holy  religion.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  forgotten  that 
it  is  impossible  to  continue  in  the  papal  communion  without  commuting 
idolatry,  a  sin  against  which  the  most  fearful  maledictions  of  Scripture 
are  pointed.  Notwithstanding  this,  however,  all  candid  Protestants 
acknowledge  the  possibility  of  salvation  within  the  Romish  pale. 

With  all  their  prejudices  and  imperfections,  it  is  contended  that  they 
maintained  a  body  of  saving  truth,  which,  under  the  agency  of  the 
divine  Spirit,  was,  it  is  charitably  hoped,  rendered  effectual  to  their 
sanctification.  But  this  is  precisely  the  mode  of  reasoning  we  adopt 
in  relaiion  to  a  pious  Jew.  He  also  possesses  a  system  of  saving 
truth.  He  possesses,  in  the  law  and  the  prophets,  what  our  Lord 
himself  has  affirmed  to  contain  sufficient  motives  to  repentance, 
together  with  that  u  cpectation  of  a  future  Messiah,  and  of  the  spiritual 
benefits  he  is  appointed  to  confer,  by  Mhich  saints  under  the  ancient 
economy  Averc  justified.  Let  it  be  carefully  kept  in  mind  that  it  is  the 
bare  possibility  tliat  a  Jew,  widiout  becoming  a  convert  to  Christianity, 
may  oblam  salvation,  for  which  we  contend  ;  or,  in  other  words,  that 
we  are  not  warranted  to  conclude  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  on  no  occasion 
■whatever,  deigns  to  employ  the  ancient  oracles  for  saving  purposes. 
Of  the  extreme  danger  to  which  the  great  majority  both  of  Jews  and 
papists  are  exposed,  and  of  the  strict  propriety  of  speaking  of  them 
in  the  mass  as  in  a  state  of  alienation  from  God,  we  entertain  no 
doubt ;  while  we  would  indulge  a  hope,  for  similar  reasons  in  both 
cases,  that  there  will  be  found  among  both  some  with  the  "mark  of 
God  on  their  foreheads."  The  denunciations  of  divine  vengeance  on 
the  patrons  and  supporters  of  the  Roman  hierarchy  in  the  Apocalypse 
are  as  awful  as  words  can  express,  and  conceived  in  very  general 
terms  :  "  The  smoke  of  their  torment  ascendeth,"  says  John,  "  for  ever 
and  ever ;  and  they  have  no  rest  day  or  night  who  worship  the  beast 
and  his  image,  and  whosoever  receiveth  the  mark  of  his  name ;"  yet, 
notwithstanding  these  fearful  menaces,  we  venture  a  charitable  opinion 
of  many  who  have  been  entangled  in  the  errors  of  the  papacy.     We 


472  THE  SPIRITUAL  CONDITION  AND 

presume  to  hope  that  the  merciful  God  will  distinguish  between  the 
impious  inventor  of  a  system,  and  those  who,  without  imbibing  its 
spirit,  have  in  different  degrees  been  duped  by  its  sophistry.  And 
why  should  not  a  similar  judgment  be  formed  respecting  a  serious  and 
conscientious  Jew  ? 

6.  The  question  before  us  is,  properly  speaking,  a  question  de  jure 
rather  than  de  facto  :  it  does  not  so  properly  relate  to  the  fact  whether 
there  are  any  Jews  in  a  state  of  salvation  who  are  not  converts  to 
Christianity,  as  to  the  possibility  of  the  thing.  We  know  so  little  of 
the  real  character  of  modern  Jews,  insulated  as  they  are  from  general 
society,  that  it  is  difficult  to  speak  with  any  degree  of  positivity  on 
that  subject.  A  general  and  superficial  view  of  that  people  would 
tempt  us  to  form  the  most  melancholy  conclusion.  But  I  have  been 
informed  by  a  learned  Jew,  extensively  acquainted  with  his  own  nation, 
that  there  are  to  be  found  among  them  men  of  a  very  different  stamp 
from  what  is  generally  prevalent.  He  solemnly  assured  me  that  he 
knew  one  Jew  in  particular,  a  foreigner,  who  was  accustomed  to  spend 
the  night  preceding  their  great  fast  in  the  synagogue,  prostrate  in  tears 
and  supplications ;  and,  on  my  asking  what  he  was  praying  for,  he 
replied,  with  some  quickness,  "  For  the  pardon  of  his  sins  and  the  sins 
of  his  people,  and  for  the  speedy  arrival  of  the  promised  Messiah ;" 
he  declared,  at  the  same  time,  that  this  was  not  a  solitary  instance. 
Admitting  this  representation  to  be  correct  (and  there  is  nothing  in  it 
which  exceeds  the  bounds  of  credibility),  I  should  feel  little  hesitation 
in  believing  that "  He  who  delighteth  in  mercy"  would  not  despise  the 
prayer  of  such  a  penitent,  because  he  wanted  that  explicit  knowledge 
of  Christ  which  was  for  ages  withheld  from  the  Jewish  church. 
Prevented  from  attending  to  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  by  the 
influence  of  prejudices  which  it  was  extremely  difficult  for  him  to  sur- 
mount, and  at  all  events  not  more  criminal  than  those  which  kept 
Fenelon  within  the  trammels  of  popery,  what  should  induce  us  to 
form  such  an  opposite  judgment,  in  two  cases,  as  to  place  the  latter 
in  the  list  of  eminent  saints,  while  we  consign  the  former  to  destruc- 
tion ?  Dark  as  popery  is,  we  must  allow  that  the  respective  degrees 
of  illumination  enjoyed  in  the  two  cases  were  very  unequal,  but  the 
fainter  of  the  two  we  must  either  confess  is  in  itself  saving,  or  give 
up  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  for  lost. 

Perhaps  it  is  unnecessary  to  remind  your  readers,  that  while  I  plead 
for  the  possibility  of  a  Jew's  obtaining  salvation  without  that  clear  and 
explicit  knowledge  of  Christ  which  Christians  possess,  I  am  far  from 
supposing  two  distinct  methods  of  salvation :  whoever  are  justified, 
whether  under  the  Jewish  or  Christian  economies,  are  alike  justified 
by  faith  in  the  Messiah.  But  I  am  at  a  loss  to  perceive  why  that  more 
vague  and  imperfect  knowledge  of  his  character  supplied  by  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  which  formerly  availed  for  that  purpose,  should  necessa- 
rily be  ineffectual  now. 

7.  These  views  are,  in  my  humble  opinion,  considerably  confirmed 
by  the  tenor  of  the  prophetic  writings,  which  seem  on  various  occa- 
sions to  recognise  a  relation  as  all  along  subsisting  between  the  Su' 


PROSPECTS  OF  THE  JEWS.  473 

preme  Being  and  the  Jews  previously  to  the  period  of  their  accession 
to  the  Christian  church.  It  appears  to  me  evident  from  ancient  pro- 
phecy, that  the  scene  of  the  future  conversion  of  the  Jews  is  their  own 
land,  where  it  is  probable,  from  Zechariah,  that  a  supernatural  inter- 
position of  the  Messiah  will  lake  place  in  their  favour,  that  he  will 
suddenly  reveal  himself  to  them  as  a  nation,  and  thus  eflect  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  remarkable  prediction  recorded  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  chapters  of  that  prophecy.  Before  their  final  deliverance, 
however,  we  read  of  a  severe  purgation  which  they  are  destined  to  un- 
dergo, during  which  two  parts  shall  be  cut  off,  and  a  third  only  left, 
and  that  the  third  part  is  to  be  brought  through  the  fire,  and  to  be  refined 
as  silver  is  refined,  and  to  be  tried  as  gold  is  tried.  "  They  shall  call 
on  my  name,  and  I  will  hear  them ;  I  will  say.  It  is  my  people,  and 
they  shall  say,  The  Lord  is  my  God."  To  the  same  purpose  the  pro- 
phet Ezekiel,  where  predicting,  as  I  conceive,  the  final  restoration  of 
the  Jews  to  their  own  land,  tells  us  that  previously  to  that  event  the 
Lord  "  will  plead  with  them  in  the  wilderness  of  the  people,  as  he 
pleaded  with  their  fathers  in  the  wilderness  of  Egypt ;  that  he  will 
bring  them  into  the  bond  of  the  covenant,  purge  out  from  them  the 
rebels  and  those  that  transgress,  so  that  they  shall  not  enter  into  the 
land  of  Israel :"  and  he  adds,  "  Ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord." 

The  latter  chapters  of  Ezekiel,  describing  the  erection  of  a  certain 
temple,  are  involved  in  so  much  obscurity,  that  it  seems  difficult  to 
arrive  at  any  determinate  conclusion  respecting  the  import  of  that 
mysterious  prophecy.  It  is  certain  that  the  attempt  to  spiritualize  it 
produces  little  besides  perplexity  and  confusion ;  nor  have  we  any 
example  in  Scripture  of  an  allegory  so  perfectly  dark  and  enigmatic 
as  it  must  be  confessed  to  be  on  that  supposition.  The  third  chapter 
of  Hosea  seems  to  present  us  with  a  just  and  striking  picture  of  the 
present  condition  of  the  Jews  ;  they  have  remained  "  many  days 
without  a  king,  and  without  a  prince,  and  without  a  sacrifice,  and 
without  an  image,  and  without  an  ephod,  and  without  a  teraphim." 
Separated  alike  from  Christians  and  from  heathens,  they  still  retain 
their  conjugal  relation  to  the  Lord  ;  they  are  under  his  frown,  but  not 
severed  from  his  covenant,  and  occupy  a  peculiar  and  intermediate 
station  between  the  members  of  the  Christian  church  and  the  wor- 
shippers of  idols. 

The  preceding  remarks,  let  it  be  remembered,  are  designed  to  apply, 
not  to  the  great  mass  of  the  Jewish  people,  who  appear  to  be  in  a  state 
of  deep  alienation  from  God,  but  solely  to  such  among  them  (if  such 
there  be)  as  are  conscientious  disciples  of  Moses  and  the  propliets, 
and  who,  though  they  are  destitute  of  the  superior  illumination  of  the 
gospel,  faithfully  improve  the  light  which  they  enjoy. 

The  chief  practical  use  to  be  derived  from  the  hypothesis  which  I 
have  ventured  to  suggest  is,  to  inspire  us  with  an  increased  tenderness 
and  respect  for  the  seed  of  Abraham,  as  containing,  notwithstanding 
its  occupying  a  distinct  fold,  a  portion  of  the  true  church  of  God.  If 
we  can  be  induced  to  hope  that  he  has  still  a  people  among  them,  wo 
shall  be  ready  to  look  upon  them  with  something  like  fraternal  affection, 


474  THE  SPIRITUAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  JEWS. 

and  to  embrace  every  opportunity  of  reprobating  and  removing  the 
cruel  privations  and  restrictions  imposed  by  Christian  nations,  who, 
absurdly  imagining  that  they  do  an  acceptable  service  to  God  by  their 
persecution  and  depression,  are  in  reahty  treasuring  up  \vrath  by 
aggravating  the  affliction  of  those  whom  he  has  smitten.  It  is  sur- 
prising that  any  man  can  read  the  ancient  prophecies  with  attention 
without  perceiving  that  he  surveys  the  treatment  of  his  ancient  people 
with  a  jealous  eye  ;  and  that  while  he  signalizes  his  displeasure  against 
them  by  the  course  of  his  providence,  he  will  enter  into  a  severe 
reckoning  with  those  who  shall  be  found  "  to  help  on  the  affliction." 
A  large  arrear  of  guilt  has  been  contracted  by  the  nacions  of  Christen- 
dom on  this  account ;  and  in  this  age  of  liberality,  when  such  mighty 
efforts  are  made  to  procure  the  removal  of  political  disabilities  on  the 
score  of  religion,  it  is  surely  high  time  their  attention  was  turned  to 
the  relief  of  the  oppressed  and  persecuted  children  of  Abraham.  Their 
political  emancipation  and  restoration  to  the  equal  rights  of  citizenship 
might  be  reasonably  expected  to  soften  their  prejudices,  and  dispose 
them  to  a  more  favourable  hearing  of  the  Christian  cause ;  nor  could 
any  thing  be  more  becoming  the  character  and  pretensions  of  the 
.Jewish  Society  than  to  take  the  lead  in  that  noble  enterprise.  As  the 
basis  of  all  social  virtue  is  laid  in  justice,  so  by  none  should  its 
obligations  be  deemed  more  sacred  than  by  those  who  make  loud 
professions  of  Christian  zeal  and  exalted  charity. 

Having  thus  freely  stated  my  present  opinions  upon  a  subject  which 
I  think  has  not  often  been  discussed,  simply  with  a  view  to  excite 
inquiry,  I  have  no  intention  to  enter  into  controversy  by  defending 
them,  but  shall  cheerfully  leave  them  to  the  consideration  of  your 
readers. 


THE 

SUBSTANCE  OF  A  CHARGE, 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  REV.  J.  K.  HALL,  AT  KETTERDfO, 
NOVEMBER  8,  1815. 

iFrom  the  Notes  of  the  Rev.  S.  Hillyard,  of  Bedford.^ 


I  SHALL  not  select  any  particular  passage  of  Scripture,  as  it  is  not 
my  intention  to  confine  myself  to  any  one  subject,  but  to  communicate 
such  miscellaneous  hints  of  advice  as  may  be  suitable  to  the  present 
occasion. 

If,  however,  I  refer  to  one  passage  more  than  another,  it  will  be  the 
exhortation  of  Paul  to  Timothy  : — "  Preach  the  word ;  be  instant  in 
season,  out  of  season ;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  long-suffering 
and  doctrine." 

The  solemn  transactions  of  this  day  will  not  be  done  with  when  the 
service  is  closed ;  they  will  undergo  a  review  at  the  tribunal  of  the 
great  Judge,  in  whose  name  we  are  now  assembled.  Nothing  in  this 
state  is  final :  every  thing  in  time  is  connected  with  eternity.  The 
churcli  of  Christ  here,  who  have  chosen  you  for  their  pastor,  and  you, 
my  brother,  who  have  accepted  this  office,  will  have  your  determina- 
tions, your  motives,  and  your  ends  adjudged  by  "  Him  who  seeth  not 
as  man  seeth,"  and  w'ill  meet  with  a  reward  according  to  their  sin- 
cerity and  purity. 

You  now  stand  as  a  watchman  situated  on  an  eminence  ;  if  you  see 
danger  you  must  "blow  the  trumpet,"  and  warn  the  people,  that  "he 
that  taketh  warning  may  deliver  his  soul ;"  and  "  if  any  man  take  not 
warning,  his  blood  shall  be  upon  his  own  head ;"  if  the  people  be  not 
warned,  they  may  be  taken  away  in  their  iniquity  ;  but  "  their  blood," 
saith  the  Lord,  "  will  I  require  at  the  watchman's  hands." 

You  are  a  steward  of  the  manifold  mysteries  of  God,  to  bring  out 
of  the  treasury  "  things  new  and  old,  that  every  one  may  have  a 
portion."  "  Moreover,  it  is  required  of  a  steward  that  he  be  found 
faithful." 

The  principal  duty  of  this  office  consists  in  your  engagement  to 
preach  the  gospel : — "  Preach  the  word." 

You  will  recollect  that  your  work  is  not  to  dispense  the  principles 
inculcated  by  any  human  authority  or  supported  by  any  human  society. 


476  CHARGE  AT  THE  ORDINATION  OF 

Though  the  treasure  of  the  gospel  be  communicated  to  "  earthen 
vessels,"  its  origin  is  celestial. 

There  is  then  little  scope  for  the  exercise  of  invention  or  the  flights 
of  imagination  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty :  these  faculties  are  em- 
ployed to  find  out  new  principles  or  to  discover  new  associations  ;  but 
their  exercise  here  will  only  tend  to  mix  truth  with  error,  to  "  darken 
counsel  by  words  without  knowledge,"  and  to  impair  that  system  of 
truth  which  God  hath  furnished  and  communicated  to  man.  You  are 
not  required  to  make  new  discoveries ;  you  need  only  to  inquire  and 
ascertain  what  is  revealed  in  the  word  of  God  :  find  out  what  is  "  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit,"  and  submit  yourself  to  his  instructions.  The  best 
method  of  doing  this,  in  connexion  with  reading  and  meditation,  is  to 
pray  for  spiritual  illumination,  like  David,  when  he  said,  "  Open  thou 
mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wonderful  things  out  of  thy  law."  There 
are  many  wonderful  things  in  the  law ;  but  we  need  the  Spirit  to  give 
us  understanding,  and  still  more  to  cause  us  to  feel  the  influence  of 
truth  in  our  own  hearts,  and  to  communicate  it  to  the  hearts  of  others. 

There  are  three  things  to  which  you  must  attend  in  preaching ;  the 
matter,  the  mode,  and  the  motives  :  the  matter  must  be  pure,  the  mode 
"  with  all  gravity,"  the  motives  such  as  are  presented  in  the  word  of  God, 
and  furnished  by  your  office  and  your  particular  station  in  the  church. 

In  preaching  the  word,  incorruptness  or  purity  in  your  matter  is  of 
the  first  importance :  in  order  to  this,  adhere  to  the  dictates  of  the 
holy  Scriptures.  I  mean  not  by  this  that  you  should  confine  yourself 
to  the  words,  but  to  the  sentiments  :  the  sentiments  may  be  lost  where 
the  words  are  retained ;  but  the  sentiments  may  be  retained  and  com- 
municated in  different  expressions. 

Preach  the  word  purely  and  fully ;  mix  nothing  with  it  that  does 
not  belong  to  it,  or  may  not  evidently  be  inferred  from  its  language. 

State  every  doctrine  and  opinion  as  near  to  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  as 
you  can  ascertain. 

The  doctrines  of  the  word  you  will  bring  forth  in  their  full  import, 
without  concealing  them,  or  endeavouring  to  melt  them  down  and 
mould  them  so  as  to  suit  the  prejudiced  and  indolent  depravity  of  the 
human  heart. 

The  gospel  is  not  suited,  and  cannot  be  made  to  suit,  the  corrupt 
dispositions  and  inclinations  of  the  carnal  "mind;"  but  the  faithful 
preaching  of  it  is  calculated  to  oppose  and  to  overcome  those  evil 
prejudices  so  far  as  to  excite  men  to  attend  to  the  doctrines  it  contains 
and  the  blessings  it  proposes.  It  is  your  duty,  not  to  bring  down  the 
gospel  into  a  conformity  with  them,  but  to  change  them  into  a  con- 
formity with  the  gospel. 

Read  the  Scriptures  frequently,  with  close  attention  and  fervent 
prayer.  Endeavour  to  collect  as  much  knowledge  relative  to  revealed 
truth  as  you  can  possibly  acquire.  Out  of  the  Scriptures  you  may 
continually  draw  new  treasures ;  and  if  you  are  "  a  scribe  well 
instructed  in  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom,"  you  will  not  find  it 
difficult  to  present  a  variety  of  interesting  matter  from  hence  that 
shall  not  only  be  profitable  but  delightful  to  your  hearers. 


THE  REV.  J.  K.  HALL.  477 

There  are  two  opposite  extremes  to  be  avoided  in  the  manner  of 
your  preaching  the  word :  the  one,  a  manner  vague  and  indistinct ;  the 
other,  a  manner  too  narrow,  subtle,  and  systematical. 

Some  have  preached  the  gospel  rather  by  implication  than  by  plain 
direct  statements :  they  have  treated  it  as  if  there  were  something  in 
its  doctrines  that  would  not  bear  the  exhibition.  Such  men  have  made 
moral  instructions  the  main  points  of  their  ministry ;  the  doctrines  of 
the  atonement,  regeneration,  the  divinity  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  riches 
of  his  grace,  if  they  have  not  been  entirely  suppressed,  have  not 
occupied  that  prominent  situation  which  their  importance  demands  for 
them ;  and  their  hearers  have  consequently  been  altogether  unac- 
quainted with  them,  or,  having  but  slight  hold  of  them,  these  things 
have  gradually  slidden  out  of  their  minds,  and  left  them  prepared  for 
heretical  instructers.  Be  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel ;  though  it  may 
contradict  many  of  the  fashionable  and  favourite  notions  of  mankind, 
and  though  you  may  find  mysteries  connected  with  the  subjects  of  it 
which  you  cannot  comprehend,  yet,  as  we  know  but  little  of  the  world, 
and  of  ourselves  less,  we  must  receive  with  simplicity  what  God  has 
taught.  He  must  "  be  true,  though  every  man  be  a  liar." — You  have 
taken  upon  you  the  solemn  charge  of  "  feeding  the  flock  of  God,"  you 
must  keep  back  no  part  of  what  he  has  provided  for  them ;  let  it  be 
your  concern  that  at  the  end  of  your  ministry  you  may  be  able  to 
speak  as  St.  Paul, — "  I  kept  back  nothing  that  was  profitable  to 
you :  I  take  you  to  record  this  day  that  I  am  pure  from  the  blood 
of  all  men;  for  I  have  not  shunned  to  declare  unto  you  all  the  counsel 
of  God." 

Opposed  to  the  vague  and  indistinct  manner  of  preaching  is  the 
narrow  and  systematical  method,  according  to  which,  doctrines,  some- 
times not  the  most  important,  have  been  made  the  themes  of  remark 
and  discussion  to  the  neglect  of  every  other  subject. 

The  gospel  is  not  revealed  in  a  systematic  form ;  it  is  not  confined 
to  any  particular  set  of  doctrines  ;  nor  does  it  ever  advance  any  doctrine 
as  merely  a  subject  of  speculation. 

Be  upon  your  guard  against  confining  your  administrations ;  point 
out  the  practical  consequences  of  the  doctrines  you  preach,  without 
which  they  will  not  produce  that  good  which  they  are  calculated  to  yield 
as  they  are  revealed  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  of  great  importance  to 
observe  the  proportion  which  truths  bear  to  each  other,  that  we  may 
not  dwell  upon  subjects  of  comparatively  small  moment,  to  the  neglect 
of  others  that  are  really  weighty.  We  should  not  give  too  much  of 
our  attention  to  any  favourite  topics,  however  important :  the  efl^ect 
of  such  a  course  will  be  to  leave  a  wrong  impression  on  the  minds 
of  the  hearers.  It  will  be  likely  to  produce  a  disproportionate  regard 
to  some  doctrines,  ordinances,  and  moral  duties,  which  is  a  similar 
deformity  in  the  new  man  to  the  disproportionate  enlargement  of  any 
particular  member  in  the  human  body  ;  and  it  may  be  that  such  regard 
to  any  doctrine,  out  of  its  connexion  with  other  revealed  truths,  will 
only  serve  to  exhibit  it  as  a  subject  of  speculation,  and  not  of  vital  and 
practical  utility. 


478  CHARGE  AT  THE  ORDINATION  OF 

An  excellent  man  was  so  impressed  with  the  doctrine  of  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  that  he  made  it  the  constant  topic  of  his  ministry ;  every 
sermon  he  preached  was  crowded  with  proofs,  or  answers  to  objections, 
relating  to  this  important  topic ;  and  the  result  was,  that  most  of  his 
hearers  became  Arians  and  Socinians  !  This  effect  was  not  such  as 
he  expected,  or  as  might  be  thought  of  at  the  time  by  others ;  but  the 
consequence  was  natural.  Such  discussions  produced,  first,  a  dry 
speculative  attention  to  the  subject,  then  a  fiery  and  contentious  spirit 
in  discussion ;  in  this  state  the  spirit  of  the  doctrine  was  lost,  and  the 
people  sunk  into  such  a  frame  of  mind  as  is  suited  to  the  reception 
of  these  or  any  other  heresies  that  might  be  sophistically  presented  to 
them.  A  serious,  spiritual  state  of  mind  is  that  which  you  must  be 
concerned  to  promote  in  your  hearers  as  the  best  preservative  against 
error ;  and  in  order  to  this  you  must  proclaim  both  the  doctrinal  truth 
and  the  practical  exhortations  of  religion. 

There  has  been  long  laid  down  a  rule  which  is  often  repeated,  is 
most  excellent,  and  worthy  of  constant  recollection:  it  is,  that  we 
must  "  preach  the  doctrines  practically,  and  preach  practice  doc- 
trinally."  Preach  the  doctrines  so  as  to  show  their  influence  on  our 
practice,  and  recommend  religious  and  virtuous  conduct  by  evangelical 
motives.  This  happy  combination  will  form  a  complete  course  of 
religious  instruction.  It  is  impossible  to  say  which  of  these  two, 
doctrinal  or  practical  preaching,  is  most  necessary ;  or  which  extreme 
is  most  dangerous — to  preach  doctrine  without  practice,  or  practice 
without  doctrine.  Read,  then,  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament, 
in  order  to  observe  how  these  are  blended  together  by  our  Lord  and 
his  inspired  apostles.  You  will  observe  there  that  the  enforcement 
of  duties  by  evangelical  motives  is  the  very  end  of  the  gospel ;  and  all 
preaching  is  good  and  estimable  only  as  it  secures  the  same  end  by 
the  same  motives. 

Be  not  afraid  of  devoting  whole  sermons  to  particular  parts  of  moral 
conduct  and  religious  duties.  It  is  impossible  to  give  right  views  of 
them  unless  you  dissect  characters  and  describe  particular  virtues  and 
vices.  The  "  fruits  of  the  flesh"  and  the  "  fruits  of  the  Spirit"  must 
be  distinctly  pointed  out.  To  preach  against  sin  in  general,  without 
descending  to  particulars,  may  lead  many  to  complain  of  the  evil  of 
their  hearts,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are  awfully  inattentive  to  the 
evil  of  their  conduct. 

You  are  aware  that  to  inculcate  the  necessity  of  regeneration  is  a 
large  part  of  your  work,  and  must  not  on  any  account  be  neglected ; 
but  it  must  not  be  so  taught  as  to  lead  men  to  suppose  that  if  they  are 
once  regenerated  they  may  be  careless  and  indifferent,  for  then  they 
are  sure  of  heaven.  If  you  do  not  often  preach  in  an  alarming,  urgent 
manner,  to  guard  them  against  sin  and  to  animate  them  to  holiness, 
you  will  be  chargeable  with  neglect.  You  must  warn  the  righteous 
man  th»t  he  turn  not  from  his  righteousness,  as  well  as  assure  the 
wicked  man  that  he  will  perish  if  he  persevere  in  his  wickedness.  If 
serious  admonitions  are  neglected,  the  preaching  of  regeneration  itself 
may  be  very  hurtful,  by  leading  numbers  to  suppose,  that  having  passed 


tHE  REV.  J.  K.  HALL.  479 

the  crdeal,  nothing  now  reiriains  but  for  them  to  wait  their  entrance 
into  heaven,  for  which  they  will  think  they  are  already  prepared. 
There  is  a  sort  of  evangelical  ministry  which  produces  no  efi'ect  but 
to  awaken  to  a  sudden  apprehension  of  danger,  and  then  to  consign, 
by  means  of  opiates,  to  the  delusive  and  destructive  stupidity  of 
spiritual  death. 

When  no  pains  are  taken  to  warn  the  awakened  of  the  necessity 
of  deep  repentance,  of  living  faith,  of  persevering  obedience,  of 
unceasing  vigilance,  and  of  renewed  conflicts,  even  unto  the  end,  they 
are  in  danger  of  fancying  they  are  "  rich,  and  increased  in  goods,  and 
have  need  of  nothing,"  though  they  are  "  miserable,  and  poor,  and 
blind,  and  naked." 

Remind  them,  that  when  they  enter  on  a  Christian  profession  they 
only  put  on  the  armour ;  admonish  them  of  the  obligations  they  are 
under  to  be  holy  and  active :  they  have  entered  as  soldiers  of  the 
Cross,  they  have  taken  the  military  oath ;  but  to  take  that  is  not  to 
perform  the  duty  of  a  soldier ;  the  display  of  bravery  is  to  be  made  in 
the  day  of  conflict,  in  their  watching,  standing,  striving,  and  putting  to 
flight  the  enemies  of  their  salvation. 

Exliort  them,  therefore,  incessantly  that  they  "  walk  worthy  of  their 
high  calling ;"  that  they  walk  "  as  becometh  the  gospel  of  Christ ;" 
that  they  "  draw  not  back  unto  perdition  ;"  that  they  be  faithfid  unto 
death,  that  they  may  obtain  "  the  crown  of  life." 

I  will  now  proceed  to  notice  briefly  those  parts  of  your  work  which 
are  not  immediately  connected  with  preaching  the  word :  "  Be  instant 
in  season,  out  of  season,"  said  the  apostle.  While  engaged  in  minis- 
tering the  word,  you  are  instant  in  season  ;  but  you  should  also  attend 
to  your  duties  out  of  season,  when  it  is  not  a  time  for  preaching. 

Remember,  this  people  is  your  charge.  When  they  are  absent  from 
you,  bear  them  in  your  mind ;  let  them  have  an  interest  in  your 
prayers  when  you  have  retired  to  your  closet :  though  they  are  your 
charge,  you  cannot  be  always  speaking  to  them ;  but  they  must 
be  engraved  on  your  heart,  as  the  high-priest  bore  the  names  of 
the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  the  good  shepherd  is  acquainted  with  all 
his  sheep. 

The  excellent  Booth  has  said,  "  He  that  does  not  pray  oftener  for 
his  people  than  with  them,  neglects  an  important  part  of  his  duty."  It 
will  endear  them  to  you,  and  draw  out  your  affections  to  them,  if  you 
pray  much  for  them,  and  it  will  secure,  through  the  Divine  blessing, 
your  usefulness  among  them.  You  are,  as  an  intercessor,  to  "  stand 
in  the  breach ;"  and  whatever  difficulty  or  danger  may  oppose,  you 
must  be,  like  another  Moses,  between  God  and  the  people. 

Not  only  is  secret  prayer  for  them  a  great  duty,  but  an  hribitual 
remembrance  and  affectionate  respect  for  them  must  be  cultivated 
when  you  are  not,  as  well  as  when  you  are,  ministering  to  them  the 
word  of  life, 

"  Watch  for  them  as  one  that  must  give  an  account :"  take  every 
fevourable  opportunity  of  speakmg  to  them  on  the  great  concerns  of 
eternity  and  the  weighty  subjects  of  revealed  truth.     If  you  see  arsy 


480         CHARGE  AT  THE  ORDINATION  OF 

of  them  departing  into  sin,  remember  it  is  said,  "  Thou  shalt  not  hate 
thy  brother,  but  shalt  reprove  him."  A.  neglect  of  reproof  in  such 
circumstances  would  have  all  the  bad  consequences  of  hatred;  for  , 
tluis  he  would  be  left  to  lie  under  the  greatest  evil  from  which  you 
might  deliver  him.  No  fear  of  giving  offence  should  prevent  you  from 
reproving,  with  meekness  and  faithfulness,  the  most  opulent  or  even 
the  most  valued  friends  of  the  society,  if  it  be  needful.  If  their 
misconduct  does  not  require  to  be  brought  before  the  church,  yet  do 
not  neglect  to  speak  to  them  in  private,  and  administer  what  counsel 
or  reproof  the  circumstances  may  demand. 

Your  people  will  look  to  you,  as  a  minister,  for  consolation  when 
they  are  in  distress,  when  overwhelmed  with  personal,  domestic,  or 
other  relative  calamities ;  manifest  towards  them  the  tenderest  sym- 
pathy, a  disposition  "  to  weep  with  them  that  weep,  as  well  as  to 
rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice." 

It  will  be  especially  your  duty  to  attend  to  those  who  are  beginning 
to  seek  and  inquire  after  salvation.  No  part  of  your  office  is  more 
delicate  than  the  giving  instruction  to  awakened  consciences,  who, 
desire  rest,  but  know  not  where  or  how  to  obtain  it.  The  impressions 
they  have  received  are  in  danger  of  wearing  off;  sometimes  they  seem 
pressing  forward,  sometimes  they  seem  drawing  backward ;  sometimes 
they  are  the  pupils  of  conscience,  at  others  the  pupils  of  appetite  and 
custom. 

Such  will  require  attention ;  and  not  to  take  opportunities  of  advising 
and  directing  would  be  to  neglect  a  duty  in  which  you  ought  to  abound. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  instruct  you  how  you  should  do  this ;  but  be  not 
afraid  to  inculcate  repentance.  Teach  them  to  expect  salvation,  not 
for  their  works,  but  in  a  course  of  attention  to  all  the  dictates  of  the 
Divine  will  respecting  faith  and  obedience.  Cherish  in  them  tender- 
ness of  conscience,  guard  them  against  "  easily  besetting  sins,"  and, 
at  the  same  time,  warn  them  not  to  stop  at  outward  information,  but  to 
seek  after  an  inward  change,  and  the  application  of  the  blood  of  Jesus. 
Admonish  them  not  to  consider  themselves  as  having  already  attained, 
or  being  already  perfect ;  not  to  mistake  what  is  preparatory  for  what 
is  final,  or  to  rest  short  of  that  connexion  with  Christ  and  conformity 
to  him  which  is  the  pledge  and  commencement  of  life  eternal. 

Here  we  need  Divine  assistance ;  it  is  best  to  learn  these  things  in 
answer  to  prayer,  and  by  habitual  practice.  As  nothing  but  much 
practice  and  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  the  human  frame 
will  make  a  skilful  physician,  so  nothing  but  a  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart  and  the  efficacy  of  the  gospel  in  healing  the  diseases  of 
the  soul,  can  teach  us  to  bring  men  health  and  cure. 

It  will  be  useful  to  "  exhort  with  much  long-suffering,  from  house  to 
house :"  much  is  to  be  accomplished  by  those  who  have  a  talent  for 
interesting  and  familiar  religious  conversation ;  a  talent  which  all 
should  cultivate.  Some  ministers,  by  an  exhibition  of  "  the  mind  of 
Christ,"  and  a  recommendation  of  the  truth,  in  private,  have  advanced 
religion  even  more  than  by  their  public  ministry  :  as  an  auxiliary,  every 
one  will  find  it  beneficial,  and  it  is  impossible  to  overvalue  it. 


THE  REV.  J.  K.  HALL.  481 

See  that  your  social  visits  are  conducted  in  the  spirit  of  the  gospel. 
Guard  against  levity.  Whatever  is  innocent  mirth,  if  it  be  allowed, 
should  only  hold  a  subordinate  place  ;  and  the  dignity  of  the  minister 
should  always  appear. 

Do  not  seek  to  cultivate  the  good  opinion  and  favour  merely  of 
those  who  are  rich,  or  even  of  those  who  are  endowed  with  intellectual 
treasures ;  nor  seek  the  gratifications  of  the  table,  nor  the  indulgence 
of  sensual  appetites.  Despise  not  tlie  meanest  of  the  flock  ;  look  not 
on  them  with  eyes  of  the  llesh,  but  with  eyes  of  the  Spirit.  You  will 
then  perceive  the  distinctions  of  wealth,  or  education,  or  intellect  are 
but  little,  compared  with  the  state  of  all  as  responsible  and  immortal 
beings.  The  points  of  difference  in  men  are  nothing,  compared  with 
the  common  capacity  for  knowing  and  enjoying  God.  They  are  to 
be  regarded  principally  as  vessels  capable  of  experiencing  the  wrath* 
or  receiving  the  mercy  of  the  Almiglity. 

Look  upon  them  now  as  you  will  look  upon  them  on  a  dying  bed : 
you  will  not  think  of  them  then  as  rich  or  poor,  as  learned  or  unlearned  ; 
but  as  sanctified  or  unsanctified,  as  "  sheep  or  goats,"  as  the  righteous 
or  the  wicked,  as  persons  with  whom  you  are  to  rejoice  for  ever,  or 
whose  final  ruin  you  must  witness  at  the  last  day.  Let  nothing  render 
you  negligent  of  the  improvement  and  comfort  of  any  one.  Remember 
who  hath  said,  "  Whoso  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones,  which 
believe  in  me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  cast  into  the  depth  of  the  sea." 
There  is  not  one  whose  soul  is  not  precious  in  the  estimation  of  the 
Lord,  not  one  for  whom  he  has  not  shed  his  blood,  not  one  for  whom 
he  would  not  have  been  ready  to  shed  his  blood,  had  no  other  soul 
existed.  Let  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  viewed  in  this  light,  arm 
you  against  being  imposed  upon  by  any  adventitious  circumstance. 

In  order  that  you  may  attend  to  these  duties  aright,  cultivate  a  devo- 
tional spirit.  The  more  you  have  of  the  mind  of  Christ,  the  more  you 
walk  in  holiness  and  humility,  the  more  "  will  your  profiting  appear." 
Watch  against  spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual  pride.  Prostrate  your- 
self in  deep  abasement  before  God.  Remember,  if  you  are  saved,  it 
is  by  an  exercise  of  Divine  mercy,  by  an  act  of  grace,  which  is  the 
subject  of  admiration  among  the  angels  of  God ;  and  nothing  is  more 
incongruous  than  for  "  such  an  one"  to  be  proud  of  any  qualities  he 
has  received.  Let  it  be  evident  that  you  are  a  good  man,  and  one  that 
makes  progress  in  the  things  of  God.  This  M'ill  produce  a  great  effect*^ 
There  is  a  silent  eloquence  in  character,  by  which  the  best  sermons 
are  most  powerfully  recommended.  Let  them,  however,  be  delivered 
with  all  sincerity,  gravity,  and  affection :  never  speak  with  lightness 
or  indifference ;  beware  of  all  levity  of  spirit  and  of  manner ;  avoid 
all  canting  and  hypocritical  terms  and  phrases ;  consider  the  weight 
of  the  subject  before  you ;  never  study  theatrical  effect ;  all  gestures 
and  mancBuvres,  and  display  of  self,  by  which  some  divines  obtain  so 
great  admiration,  are  unworthy  of  your  subject  and  your  ofHce.  A 
sound  preacher  of  the  gospel  will  produce,  not  admiration  of  himselfi 
but  of  the  truth,  and  adoration  of  that  God  and  Saviour  from  whom  all 

Vol.  II.— H  h 


482  CHARGE  AT  THE  ORDINATION  OF 

truths  proceed ;  remembering  that  awful  account  which  ministers  and 
people  will  all  have  to  give,  when  they  meet  before  his  judgment-seat. 

Sincerely  aim  to  do  good,  and  the  Lord  will  be  with  you.  Mr.  Baxter 
said  he  never  knew  a  minister  who  was  sincerely  desirous  of  benefiting 
souls  that  was  not  blessed  with  considerable  success.  The  more  you 
can  go  out  of  self,  and  lose  all  recollection  of  your  own  importance,— 
the  more  you  are  impressed  with  the  love  of  souls,  the  more  will  you 
be  likely  to  manifest  that  truth  which  recommends  itself  "  to  every 
man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God." 

Let  the  consciences  of  your  hearers  be  the  subjects  of  your  concerno 
Address  their  understanding  and  affections  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
at  their  consciences. 

I  am  aware  of  the  difficulty  of  your  situation,  in  consequence  of 
your  succeeding  our  most  invaluable  and  incomparable  brother,  Mr. 
Fuller.  It  is  not  possible  that  you  should,  at  present,  attain  to  that 
profundity  of  mind,  those  extensive  views,  and  that  pointed  statement 
of  truth  which  were  possessed  and  evinced  by  him ;  but  even  this 
difficulty  may  be  of  use  to  you,  as  a  stimulus  to  excite  you  to  greater 
exertions.  Should  you  be  tempted  to  indolence  (which  I  have  no 
reason  to  suspect  you  will  indulge),  the  recollection  ofserving  a  people 
who  have  been  blessed  with  such  a  minister,  the  consideration  of  what 
they  will  expect,  may  serve  to  rouse  and  animate  you  in  your  work. 

Another  circumstance  I  may  refer  to,  as  a  motive  peculiar  to  your 
present  situation ;  and  that  is,  the  respectable  minority  which  have 
been  opposed  to  you.  This  may  also  be  overruled  to  your  advantage, 
if  you  are  more  watchful  over  your  temper  and  conduct  (I  do  not  say 
than  you  have  been,  but)  than  you  might  have  been  if  you  had  been 
carried  down  the  stream  of  universal,  applause ;  and  if  it  excite  you 
to  conciliation  and  kindness  towards  those  who  oppose  themselves,  it 
may  have  the  happiest  eftect  on  their  minds,  and  will  certainly  raise 
and  establish  your  character  as  a  minister  of  the  meek  and  lowly 
Saviour. 

I  need  not  warn  you,  because  you  have  always  guarded,  against  any 
thing  personal  in  your  ministry  towards  those  who  have  not  fixed  their 
choice  on  you.  You  will  be  ready  to  treat  them  with  the  same  kind- 
ness which  you  manifest  to  others.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  (con- 
sidering whom  you  follow,  and  some  particular  circumstances  which 
are  well  known,  but  need  not  be  mentioned)  that  there  should  be  a 
part  of  the  church  who  could  not  act  with  the  rest  in  their  choice ; 
but  it  will  be  well  if  you  can  manage  these  circumstances  for  your 
advantage  and  the  furtherance  of  the  gospel. 

I  shall  not  detain  you  longer  than  to  remind  you  whence  it  is  that 
you  are  to  derive  the  strength  and  wisdom  necessary  to  prepare  you 
for  your  work ;  and  I  cannot  do  this  better  than  in  the  language  of 
Paul  to  Timothy,  "  Be  strong  in  the  grace  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus !" 
Be  strong !  How  strangely  does  this  exhortation  sound  !  To  tell  a 
man  that  is  weak  to  be  strong  would  be  absurd ;  but  what  would  be 
a%surd  in  philosophy  is  true  and  consistent  with  the  gospel.  Be  strong 
in  the  grace  of  Christ,  for  his  grace  is  communicable ;  and  the  power 


THE  REV.  J.  K.  HALL.  483 

of  Christ  rests  on  those  who  seek  it  with  a  sense  of  their  own  weak- 
ness. 

We  are  directed  to  seek  it  by  prayer,  and  thus  to  be  strong.  Look 
to  the  Lord  for  all  the  assistance  you  need.  Remember  how  dependent 
you  are.  Look  to  the  Father  and  the  Son  :  be  not  afriiid  of  praying 
to  the  Son  of  God  as  Paul  did ;  and  it  is  often  more  consolatory  than 
prayer  in  any  other  form. 

You  are  a  sinner  redeemed ;  but  you  are  a  preacher  of  the  word 
placed  over  this  people,  not  to  tyrannize,  but  to  walk  before  them  in 
the  Lord :  in  hearing  your  voice,  they  should  hear  him  ;  in  following 
your  footsteps,  they  should  follow  him.  Your  employment  is  that  of 
the  Son  of  God :  it  makes  no  appearance  before  the  eyes  of  worldly 
men;  but  it  will  arise  in  a  form  of  majesty  to  overshadow  all  created 
glory.  Its  effects  will  be  known  and  felt  in  souls  that  shall  enjoy 
Christ  in  his  kingdom  for  ever,  or  in  spirits  in  whom  the  work  of  death 
shall  be  finished. 

Keep  the  commandments  of  Christ  committed  to  you,  without  re- 
proach. Endeavour  to  "  present  every  man  faultless  before  God." 
Your  happiness  will  be  diminished  if  one  be  wanting.  Be  concerned 
to  "  give  up  your  account  with  joy,  and  not  with  grief." 

Labour,  that  not  one  of  those  that  hear  you,  not  one  that, has  sat 
down  at  the  table,  not  one  to  whom  you  have  "  given  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship,"  should  be  excluded  when  the  Lord  cometh. 

See  to  it,  that  you  are  not  excluded  yourself.  So  preach  as  to 
"save  yourself,  and  them  tliat  hear  you."  It  is  possible  for  a  man  to 
bring  others  to  Christ  for  salvation,  and  yet  not  be  saved  himself.  You 
may  preach  to  others,  and  yet  be  a  castaway.  You  need  grace,  but 
do  not  despair.  The  grace  of  the  Saviour  is  sufficient  for  you  :  "  His 
strength  shall  be  made  perfect  in  your  weakness,"* 

*  Mr.  John  Keen  Hall,  to  whom  this  charge  was  addressed,  was  Mr.  Hall's  nephew  ;  a  circum- 
etance  which,  while  it  may  serve  to  account  lor  the  minuteness  of  some  of  the  exhortations,  in  my 
judgment,  adds  to  their  interest.  Mr.  J.  K.  Hall, who  had  been  Mr.  Fuller's  colleague,  survived  him 
only  fifleen  years:  he  died  in  1829. 

Mr.  Hillyard,  to  whose  kindness  I  am  indebted  lor  the  notes  here  published,  is  anxious  it  should 
be  understood  thai  his  main  object  was  to  preserve  the  substance  of  the  charge.  It  was  seldom, 
indeed,  that  he  succeeded  in  catching  the  precise  language  ;  and,  towards  the  end,  several  sublime 
and  most  impressive  sentences  were  entirely  lost,  from  his  yielding  liimself  to  the  stream  of  feeling 
excited  by  the  preacher. — Ed. 

Hh2 


ON   THE   ART   OF   HEALING, 

[From  Mr.  HalVs  own  Notes.     Not  published  before.} 


Matt.  ix.  12. — But  when  Jesus  heard  that,  he  said  tinto  them,  The 
whole  need  not  a  Physician,  but  they  that  are  sick. 

That  the  sick  need  a  physician*  is  an  assertion  which  appeals  to 
the  dictates  of  common  sense.  Among  the  innumerable  benefactions 
issuing  from  a  wise  and  gracious  Providence,  the  art  of  healing  is  not 
to  be  considered  as  the  least.  For  though  it  is  far  from  having  reached 
the  perfection  which  we  naturally  desire,  or  which  may  be  attainable, 
its  efficiency  is  such  as  ought  to  inspire  the  most  unfeigned  gratitude 
to  the  Author  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift.  By  the  cure  of  many, 
and  the  mitigation  of  most  of  the  diseases  to  which  the  human  frame 
is  incident,  the  total  amount  of  ease,  comfort,  and  refreshment  which 
it  confers  is  incalculable.  In  judicious  hands  it  is  the  handmaid  of 
nature,  while  it  obeys  her  indications  and  assists  her  efforts.  It  never 
acts  apart,  but  always  in  a  vigilant  and  judicious  subserviency  to  her 
fundamental  laws  and  her  salutary  tendencies.  It  is  well  known  that 
there  is  in  all  living  substances  a  certain  vis  medicatrix,  a  certain  effort 
at  self-provision,  an  inherent  and  powerful  tendency  to  recover  itself 
from  the  injury  it  may  have  sustained,  a  principle  of  active  resistance 
to  the  progress  of  disease  and  decay.  A  property  of  this  kind  seems 
to  be  inseparable  from  life  in  all  its  diversified  modes  and  appearances  ; 
and  nothing,  surely,  can  afford  a  plainer  demonstration  of  the  benign 
character  of  the  Deity. 

When  a  bone  is  fractured,  nothing  more  is  necessary  than  to  place 
the  parts  which  accident  has  separated  in  their  original  juxtaposition, 
and  they  will  very  soon  adhere:  an  exudation  from  the  bones  takes 
place,  which  forms  a  collar  of  so  firm  a  texture  that  the  parts  often 
become  more  perfectly  united  than  before  :  it  is  scarcely  ever  known 
that  a  bone  is  fractured  twice  in  the  same  place.  When  the  fleshy 
parts  are  separated  by  a  wound,  and  a  considerable  chasm  ensues,  the 
self-restorative  power  of  nature  forms  new  fleshy  produces  a  new  set 
of  vessels  for  the  circulation  of  the  blood ;  the  interstice  is  filled  up, 
and  the  continuity  of  the  parts  is  by  degrees  perfectly  restored.  The 
indication  of  design  in  such  a  process  is  just  as  evident  as  in  restoring 
com mui)ication  between  two  places  by  repairing  the  broken  arches  of 
a  bridge. 

*  This  constituted  part  of  a  sermon  that  was  preached  lor  the  Leicester  Infirmary,  from  the 
^h(fye  text,  vn  Sunday,  >^ay  29,  1825,— Ed. 


ON  THE  ART  OF  HEALING.  485 

In  constant  subserviency  to  this  mysterious  law,  the  skilful  physician 
explores  the  secret  affinities  subsisting  between  the  living  substance 
which  composes  the  body  and  the  material  elements  which  surround  it. 
By  a  sublime  process  of  experiment  and  induction,  he  has  ascertained, 
to  a  great  extent,  the  relation  which  the  corporeal  frame  sustains  to  the 
various  objects,  both  natural  and  artificial,  with  which  the  stores  of 
nature  are  fraught.  He  has  extorted  her  secrets,  and  has  summoned 
her  powers  in  aid  of  human  distress  and  infirmity.  He  has  fetched 
from  the  bowels  of  the  [earth,]  from  the  caverns  of  the  ocean,  and 
from  the  boundless  fields  of  air,  the  most  powerful  antidotes  to  disease. 
He  has  levied  a  contribution  from  all  the  departments  and  provinces 
of  nature,  and  compelled  them  to  yield  their  service  to  man,  in  all 
the  varieties  of  physical  disorder  to  which  he  is  exposed  ;  and,  whether 
it  be  requisite  to  brace  or  to  relax  the  [fibres]  of  the  breathing  frame,  to 
retard  or  to  accelerate  its  motion,  to  stimulate  or  to  depress,  to  quicken  its 
energies  or  to  allay  its  agitations,  he  makes  them  minister  to  his 
purpose,  and  become  the  agents  of  his  will.  He  has  discovered  the 
art  of  converting  into  useful  ingredients  substances  deemed  essen- 
tially noxious,  and  of  extracting  antidotes  from  poisons.  Thus  he 
vindicates  from  rash  and  presumptuous  imputations  the  beneficence  of 
nature  or  of  its  great  Author,  by  showmg  that  all  which  "  he  has 
made  is  very  good." 

A  large  portion  of  the  ingenuity  and  industry  of  mankind  is  inces- 
santly exerted  in  multiplying  the  pleasures  of  the  opulent,  giving  a 
higher  zest  to  the  fruitions  of  luxury,  and  gratifying  the  caprices  of 
vanity  and  pride  ;  and  such  is  the  mechanism  of  society,  that  even 
from  these  the  poor  are  fed  and  the  indigent  relieved.  With  the 
physician,  however,  it  is  far  otherwise.  He  interposes  in  the  moment 
of  exigence,  and  obeys  the  call  of  distress.  He  administers  the  cordial 
to  the  fainting  spirit,  rekindles  the  expiring  lamp  of  hope,  and  [often] 
decks  the  countenance  with  smiles,  which  death,  under  the  ravages  of 
disease,  had  marked  for  his  victim  and  covered  with  his  shade.  He 
leaves  it  to  others  to  accompany  the  human  race  in  their  revelry  and 
their  triumphs  :  while  they  bask  on  the  bosom  of  the  ocean,  or  spread 
their  sails  to  the  wind,  he  presents  himself  on  the  shore,  and  rescues 
the  shipwrecked  mariner  from  the  waves.  With  a  silent  and  invisible 
energy  he  contends  Avith  the  powers  of  destruction,  and  often  rescues 
from  the  grave  him  that  [seemed]  "  appointed  to  death." 

If  he  conducts  the  objects  of  his  care  sometimes  through  painful 
processes,  his  proceeding  resembles  in  that  respect  the  conduct  of  the 
gracious  Author  of  our  being,  who  afflicts  with  paternal  reluctance, 
and  smites  but  to  heal.  From  the  practice  of  an  enlightened  professor 
of  the  healing  art  nothing  is  more  remote  than  the  infliction  of  unne- 
cessary suffering,  or  wanton  and  unfeeling  experiments  on  the  powers 
of  human  endurance.  His  hand  never  administers  an  uneasy  sensation, 
but  with  a  view  to  the  future  comfort  of  his  patient ;  nor  is  he  the 
author  of  a  single  privation  or  restraint  but  what  is  designed  for  his  good. 

Considered  in  their  leading  features,  its  ministrations  are  a  beautiful 
imitation  of  those  of  Divine  Providence.     Both  are  designed  to  restore 


488  ON  THE  ART  OF  HEALING.  '. 

what  is  lost,  and  to  repair  what  is  disordered :  both  have  the  production 
of  ease  and  happiness  for  their  ultimate  object ;  both  frequently  make 
use  of  pains  and  privations  as  the  means  of  procuring  it,  but  neither 
of  them  [employ]  an  atom  more  of  these  than  is  deemed  requisite  for 
that  purpose. 

Hence  it  will  probably  be  found  that  the  medical  profession  has 
furnished  more  examples  of  active  and  enlightened  humanity  than  any 
other  walk  or  profession.  Being  daily  and  hourly  conversant  with 
scenes  of  misery,  the  contrary,  it  would  seem  at  first,  might  have  been 
expected.  It  might  have  been  thought  that  habit  would  render  [medical 
men]  callous  and  indifferent  to  those  varieties  of  suffering  that  so 
frequently  offer  themselves  to  their  view.  That  the  effect  of  such 
familiarity  is  to  impair  the  force  of  pity,  considered  merely  as  an 
emotion,  may  be  very  probable.  It  is  well  it  is  so :  for  if  their  nerves 
were  unstrung,  and  their  hand  to  tremble  at  the  witnessing  of  pain 
and  agony,  like  those  who  were  miused  to  such  spectacles,  they  would 
be  totally  disabled  from  executing  their  functions.  But  humanity, 
considered  as  an  active  propensity  to  alleviate  human  distress,  is 
improved  and  maintained  in  wholesome  exercise  by  the  benevolence 
of  the  end,  notwithstanding  the  occasional  severity  of  the  means. 
The  mind  of  a  physician  is  continually  pregnant  with  expedients  for 
the  mitigation  of  pain,  the  extinction  of  disease,  and  the  prolongation 
of  life ;  a  course  of  thinking  which  cannot  fail  to  cultivate  and  mature 
the  seeds  of  benevolence.  His  success  is  in  exact  proportion  to  the 
benefits  he  imparts  :  his  triumphs  are  signalized  by  the  tears  of  grati- 
tude, the  gratulations  of  friendship,  and  the  raptures  of  returning  health. 

How  striking  is  the  contrast  between  the  art  of  medicine  and  the 
art  of  war  !  The  last  has  for  its  object  the  destruction,  the  first  the 
preservation  of  the  species.  The  mind  of  the  warrior  teems  with 
machinations  of  ruin,  and  anxiously  revolves,  among  different  schemes 
that  present  themselves,  which  shall  scatter  destruction  to  the  widest 
extent  and  with  the  surest  aim  :  his  progress  is  marked  by  devastation 
and  blood,  by  depopulated  fields  and  smoking  villages,  and  the  laurels 
which  he  wears  are  bedewed  with  the  tears  of  widows  and  orphans. 
The  acclamations  which  he  wins  from  one  portion  of  his  species  are 
answered  by  the  curses  and  execrations  of  another ;  and  the  delusive 
splendour,  the  proud  and  imposing  array  with  which  he  contrives  to 
gild  the  horrors  of  his  profession  are  but  the  pomp  and  retinue  of 
the  king  of  terrors.*  The  art  of  healing  proceeds  with  a  silence  and 
secrecy,  like  the  great  processes  of  nature,  to  scatter  blessings  on  all 
within  its  reach ;  and  the  couch  of  sickness,  the  silent  retreat  of  sorrow 
and  despair,  are  the  scene  of  its  triumphs. 

The  little  applause  which  is  bestowed  on  physicians,  compared 
with  what  is  so  lavishly  heaped  on  conquerors,  conveys  a  bitter  reflec- 
tion on  human  nature  ;  by  showing  how  much  we  suffer  ourselves  to 
be  the  dupes  of  our  senses,  to  extol  the  brilliant  rather  than  the  useful : 
whereas,  a  just  and  impartial  estimate  would  compel  us  to  assign  to 

*  The  author  seems  here  to  have  borrowed  a  little,  perhaps  unconsciouslj',  from  himself.  See 
Vol.  I.  p.  64,  &c.— Ed. 


ON  THE  AUT  OF  HEALING.  487 

skilful  practitioners  of  medicine  the  very  first  rank  among  merely 
human  professions.  For  when  we  consider  the  variety  of  ills  to  which 
we  are  exposed,  and  how  large  a  portion  is  derived  from  bodily  infir- 
mities, it  will  appear  that  we  are  more  indebted  to  their  assistance 
than  to  [that  of]  any  other  class  of  persons  whatever. 

Nor  are  the  reflections  in  which  we  have  indulged,  and  the  train  of 
thought  we  have  pursued,  foreign  to  the  immediate  purpose  of  the 
present  discourse,  which  is,  to  invite  your  assistance  in  repairing  the 
funds  of  the  Leicester  Infirmary, — an  institution  which  you  are  aware 
has  been  productive  of  incalculable  good.  Open  to  the  sick  of  all 
denominations,  it  assembles  within  its  walls  the  victims  of  poverty  and 
disease  of  every  description,  and  provides  for  them  the  most  suitable 
diet,  skilful  advice,  and  assiduous  attentions  ;  of  each  of  which  the 
greater  part  of  its  patients  must  necessarily  have  remained  destitute, 
but  for  this  excellent  charity.  If  we  are  convinced  of  the  utility  and 
dignity  of  the  medical  and  chirurgical  arts, — if  we  are  satisfied  how 
much  they  contribute  to  the  comfort  and  the  preservation  of  life,  we 
are  prepared  to  appreciate  the  value  of  that  charity  which  proposes 
for  its  object  the  extension  of  these  advantages  to  the  poor ;  nor  is  it 
possible  to  extend  them  so  far  by  any  other  provision  as  by  the  support 
of  a  public  asylum. 

To  administer  equal  medical  assistance  and  attendance  to  an  equal 
number  at  their  own  abodes,  would  be  accompanied  by  an  augmentation 
of  expense  which  would  render  it  insupportable.  By  collecting  the 
victims  of  disease  in  our  asylum,  and  placing  them  under  one  system 
of  administration,  not  only  is  economy  consulted  by  an  immense 
saviiig  of  expense,  but  the  improvement  of  science  is  promoted  by 
presenting  a  wide  field  of  observation  on  the  great  varieties  of  maladv 
which  fall  undei'  the  notice  of  the  practitioners. 

By  this  system,  also,  a  course  of  wholesome  religious  instruction  is 
secured,  under  circumstances  the  most  favourable  to  its  reception. 

The  chymical  lectures,  delivered  by  the  ablest  professors  in  our 
public  hospitals,  furnish  the  most  important  branch  of  medical  instruc- 
tion, and  are  adapted  to  benefit  generations  yet  unborn. 

*********  * 

The  erection  of  hospitals  and  infirmaries  for  the  poor  is  one  of  the 
distinguishing  ornaments  and  fruits  of  Christianity,  unknown  to  the 
wisdom  and  humanity  of  pagan  times.  Compassionate  consideration 
of  the  poor  formed  no  part  of  the  lessons  of  pagan  philosophy ;  its 
genius  was  too  arrogant  and  lofty  to  stoop  to  the  children  of  want  and 
obscurity.  It  soared  in  sublime  speculation,  wasted  its  strength  in 
endless  subtleties  and  debates  ;  but,  among  the  rewards  to  which  it 
aspired,  it  never  thought  of  "  the  blessedness  of  him  that  considereth 
the  poor."  You  might  have  traversed  the  Roman  empire,  in  the 
zenith  of  its  power,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Atlantic,  without  meeting 
with  a  single  charitable  asylum  for  the  sick.  Monuments  of  pride,  of 
ambition,  of  vindictive  wrath,  were  to  be  found  in  abundance ;  but  not 
one  legible  record  of  commiseration  for  the  poor.     It  was  reserved  for 


488  ON  THE  ART  OF  HEALING. 

the  religion  whose  basis  is  humility,  and  whose  element  is  devotion^ 
to  proclaim  with  authority,  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall 
obtain  mercy." 

There  are  few  of  us,  I  trust,  who  are  prepared  to  regard  the  priva- 
tions of  poverty  alone  with  indifference ;  much  less  when,  combined 
with  sickness,  its  victim  is  reduced  to  the  last  stage  of  helplessness. 
When  the  hands  which  ministered,  not  only  to  their  own  necessities, 
but  to  those  of  a  numerous  family,  are  debilitated  with  disease,  and 
unnerved  with  sickness,  the  most  complicated  distress  must  necessarily 
ensue.  Were  it  not  for  the  ministration  of  piety,  the  calamity  would 
be  insupportable.  In  many  situations,  the  earnings  of  labour  are  but 
barely  sufficient  for  the  sustenance  of  life  on  its  lowest  terms  ;  no 
savings  can  be  made  ;  no  superfluity  be  retrenched  ;  and  what  must  be 
the  slate  of  such  a  family  when  that  labour  is  suspended  by  the  invasion 
of  disease  ?  But  for  such  asylums  as  these,  the  consequences  would 
be  too  dreadful  for  human  contemplation. 

(Sickness  is  incident  to  all,  and  therefore  a  proper  object  of  com- 
miseration.) 


END  OF  VOL.  IL 


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